


"Just Friends"

by Writer_Markilyn



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Emotional Roller Coaster, Friends With Benefits, Internal Conflict, Light Angst, Lots of feelings drama, M/M, Minho rly wants them to get their shit together, Slow build to boyfriends, Smut, Switch!Newt, Switch!Thomas, Top!Thomas, a lot of it, bottom!Newt, newt is a mess, thomas is a mess, with more conflicting feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-04-24 00:45:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14344416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writer_Markilyn/pseuds/Writer_Markilyn
Summary: Everything was easier as just friends, until the “just friends” line starts to blur with a more dangerous territory that they both try to avoid.  Where then, this uncharted territory starts to feel like the end of the world.  At least, for Thomas and Newt it seems like the end of the world.  The end of their simpler world, as the rules they made up start breaking, the no strings attached agreement start to tangle and ensnare them, and most importantly, the feeling they both swore to never embrace starts to loom overhead: Love.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Updates will hopefully be posted every Saturday!
> 
> Pls feel free to leave kudos, comments, or both! Or pls feel free to rip me to pieces if this story is legit garbage.
> 
> I don't proof read, all mistakes are on me.

“Yes, Tommy, _yes_ ,” Newt breathed shakily, he had to smother the moan that started to make itself known, as he and Thomas were not alone in Thomas’ fraternity that night; Minho’s room was right next to Thomas’, but Newt assumed that he knew what they were up to, as when Newt had to brace his hands on the wall behind him to stop himself from sliding up the bed, he could feel the wall vibrating from loud music being played on the other side.

Thomas moved his hands back to Newt’s hips to hold him still, he saw that Newt’s arms were trembling where he was straining to keep himself in place.  He pulled Newt close again, fingers digging into Newt’s soft skin and thrust his hips forward, this time, Newt didn’t even have a chance to stop the loud cry, and Thomas only prayed that Minho not only had loud music playing, but also had earbuds in.

Despite this whole friends-with-benefits thing that he and Newt had seamlessly kept together through out their junior year of high school up until their second year of college, it was much harder to keep up with their flings, when it had been a hectic first few weeks of the new semester and they hadn’t really had time for each other after class or on the weekends, and now they were just desperate to have some type of release.

The distance never bothered them, if anything, it made the primal urges in them stronger the meaningless sex all the more better, especially when they were both attuned with each other’s bodies.

Thomas knew how Newt liked to be fucked, how to kiss him just right, where to bite, and Newt knew when he had to take control of Thomas, knew where to touch that had Thomas melting under him, knew how to leave proper marks on that lean, golden body.

Things were just simpler this way, all physical and nothing emotional; they were of course still good friends, they would fight anyone if either of them were being threatened, they knew how to comfort each other through different types of stress, rather it be friend, work, homework related.

_Good friends to each other and even better fuck buddies._

These were just their rules that they came up in their junior year of high school, when Newt was no longer a stranger to Thomas, he was still just a cute foreign exchange student with the soothing accent, the only boy in his now divorced family, who had moved to New York from London with his mother and his younger sister; Thomas had been smitten with him the first moment he met Newt in his freshmen English class, he loved the bland and dark sense of humor the blonde boy had.  Newt appreciated that Thomas, who could almost be literal sunshine, could find his tasteless likes and hobbies interesting and indulge himself with those same hobbies, as long as it made Newt happy.

Newt liked the rules of simplicity, which he thought the word fit Thomas perfectly, as the track star of their high school was nothing but straightforward with people, Thomas was kind, and wonderful to be around, but he was blunt, he didn’t soften the blow for things; he let people know how he felt so there would be zero mixed signals, and that’s what Newt adored, and easily agreed with Thomas “all physical and no feelings involved” flings.

They both agreed that love was overrated, Newt understood that, being a child of divorced parents, he saw how his parents fell out of love, he saw that his sister was torn up about it, he remembered his mother crying in the foyer when she found out that Newt’s father had cheated on her with the secretary at his father’s job, he remembered how jaded his mother became, but still was a good mum nonetheless, he knew that she’d never love again, and Newt refused to ever let himself fall in love; he would never let someone have that power over him.

Thomas’ situation was different, he was adopted into a family who were former friends with Thomas’ family.  He had been taken into childcare services when he was 10 and taken in by Teresa’s family around a year later.  His life had fallen to pieces when his mother and father fell into addictive habits that ruined their relationship with each other and with their only son, Thomas saw his parents yell and scream at each other, hit each other, they’d forget to go grocery shopping, forget to pay bills, Thomas would go to school hungry, clothes filthy, skinny as a rail, as he already had been an active child because he didn’t want to go home, so he played with his friends until their families called them to come inside, and Thomas stayed at the park.  He could still remember to this day that there would never be enough love to fix someone, not even themselves, he could remember when his mother, who had been sober and clean at the time, begging his father not to go down this path again, and barely even two weeks later, she was joining him.  Thomas believed that people in relations were prone to fail and go down with terrible habits that not even marriage or a solid relationship could save anything.

These were their rules:

  1. We will respect each other;
  2. One-night stands are allowed;
  3. No dates;
  4. No visiting each other on the holidays;
  5. No gift giving;
  6. No using each other as excuses when family asks why they don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend;
  7. No hand holding or public displays of affection;
  8. No cuddling in bed, sex only;
  9. No usage of the term “love” even in a joking manner; and finally
  10. Absolutely no falling in love.



They mutually agreed that if one fell for the other, or even had a smidge bit of more than platonic feelings for the other, they were to leave their friends-with-benefits immediately and keep away from each other for at least half a year until the other person got their shit figured out and they could resume like normal.

Luckily for the both of them, it hadn’t happened when they were in high school, when all things were just pure hormones and trying to get into a good college, but the shift was inevitable.

Thomas had drunkenly muttered a term of affection to Newt, after one intense session of sex, Newt had felt the change in pace, the way drunk Thomas touched and held him, fucked him, kissed him, like Thomas wanted to make sure that Newt was enjoying himself, making him feel wanted rather than just used, and needless to say, Newt had caved slightly, just overwhelmed with soft affection, he kissed and coddled Thomas, running his fingers through Thomas’ soft hair, placing soft kisses on his collarbones instead of teeth marks, fingers caressing instead of bruising, he let himself enjoy the brief change.

That had been at the end of their freshmen year in college, and that following morning, Newt woke before Thomas,  had packed his shit for the summer, left a barely legible note because his hand was shaking so bad, and went back to London for two and half weeks to visit his Gran, and tried to repress all memory of how lovely that night had been, how he could still feel the phantom touch, and ignored how terribly he wanted to make love to Thomas like that.

It made him angry, but only with himself, he went back to his house in New York, hugged his mother at the airport, ruffled Sonya’s hair, who whined at him for messing up her braids, tried to act normally as possible throughout the day, while having a crisis every night for the next week,  helped his mother with her new hobby of gardening, helped his sister with her summer homework, worked at the library a couple days during the week, and swore to himself that he was not stalking Thomas at the Central Park when he saw him doing his morning jog with Minho.

He hated that he was betraying Thomas, he hated that he was breaking the rules, he hated that he couldn’t distance himself from Thomas; Newt hated that he was falling for Thomas and that he was also falling into a category that Thomas hated—an addict.

Newt was addicted to Thomas and adored everything about him, from the way his eyes lit up when Newt would nonchalantly give him a blueberry muffin and a sweet coffee on Monday mornings, to the adorable cluster of freckles that were spread across the bridge of Thomas’ nose and cheeks and on his shoulder blades, to even the sleepy murmurings he breathed out in his sleep after sex.

Newt desperately wanted to blame Thomas for this and for breaking the rules first, or at least he blamed Thomas for breaking their ninth rule, but Newt broke their final and most important rule:

_Don’t fall in love._

Too late, Newt thought when he opened his eyes to look at Thomas, who had just finished, he watched Thomas’ rosy, soft lips part as he panted softly, the boy on top of him had his attention focused on his hand, he was stroking Newt through his second orgasm, and the blonde’s breath hitched as another wave of pleasure started at the base of his spine, swooping through his stomach, and made his pulse skyrocket and drum into his ears.

“Too much?” Thomas asked softly into Newt’s ear; he felt Newt shake his head in answer.  He laved his tongue over the small hickey he left behind Newt’s ear that would be faded before either of them woke up.  He could feel himself getting hard again when he heard the soft whine that came from Newt’s mouth and he smothered it out with a kiss; as much as he enjoyed having sex with Newt, they had class early in the morning.

Newt’s body still hummed in the afterglow as Thomas had got off the bed to go shower and do his nightly routine that Newt knew to heart by this point.  He did hate that showering together wasn’t allowed, despite it not being on their list of rules, so he would just listen to the water run and he’d wake up when Thomas would nudge him awake to go do the same, bitching softly that he didn’t want his bed to get stained, after he would shower, Thomas would leave a shirt for Newt to wear to bed, but would always be asleep before Newt could thank him.

This was their routine and it wasn’t going to last, but Newt would be damned not to make it last, he’d run with it until his mental leg gave out too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I'd post on Saturday, but I couldn't wait lmao
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading and thank you those who leave comments, or kudos, or both! They make my day!~

“Professor Paige is a righteous cunt,” Newt declared as he dropped into the seat next to Thomas, who was editing Minho’s thesis, while Minho was highlighting notes in his textbook and comparing those with his weeks’ worth of notes for his history class.

“Tell me all about it,” Thomas said, not looking away from the typed pages, he put the pen cap between his teeth again and pushed his glasses back up his nose, as Newt took out his own textbooks and opened back to the chapter he had been reviewing of his human ethics class that Professor Paige taught.

“Maybe later,” Newt mumbled, he was going through the lesson summary again when he startled as Minho put a cup of coffee in front of him.  “Thanks, Min, I didn’t know you knew what I liked,” he said, as Minho always fucked up his coffee order somehow.

“I don’t, I focus on numbers, not humans,” Minho replied; he was grumpy and kept wondering why he needed to take history when he was majoring to be an accountant.  “It was your boyfriend who remembers all the _fine_ details about you,” his nose wrinkled

Newt felt Thomas tense up at his side, “Seems he’s a better friend than you,” he teased, trying to play off the comment and knew that his friend was just being bratty from stress.  He’s known Minho since high school, he had been introduced to Minho by Thomas, those two had met through their track meets that their high school did with Minho’s school every couple of weeks, and they all hung out on the weekends and had hung out almost every day during the summer.

The only time they didn’t hang out as much was during their junior year summer leading into their senior year, when Minho had walked into Thomas’ bedroom unannounced, while Thomas and Newt were getting familiar with each other’s bodies.

It had been an awkward moment for them all and it took a lot of KFC to get Minho to even be over at either of their houses again, not because Minho disproved of them, but his feelings had been hurt that they had hidden their relationship from him, which then led into them explaining to Minho of their situation—Thomas had to break the tension with quoting Jersey Shore after that, but it had been lost cause to the boy from South Korea and the other boy from London—Minho had been confused at first about it, but accepted them no matter what, even if it sounded complicated, but Thomas and Newt were complicated individuals, but always seemed to find a solution with each other.

“Yea, in a way he is,” Minho muttered, still glaring at his notes.

“Minho,” Thomas testily called out, stopping in mid edit, a jagged, half-drawn red circle on the rough-draft remained incomplete, as he was now glaring at his friend over the edge of his stupidly hipster glasses. 

Newt didn’t bother to intervene, he merely sipped his coffee as he skimmed the lesson summary and jotted some notes down on the margins and in his journal.  He already hated that this morning was rough, his sister calling him in tears that her boyfriend had broken up with her over a text before school started, he hadn’t eaten any breakfast and he had been miserable through his almost two hour lecture, he had an upcoming test on Friday, which he hadn’t even reviewed yet, it was only Tuesday, but he knew he was fucked regardless, and to make matters worse, he and Thomas hadn’t had sex in almost three weeks, and not having sex this long made Newt lonely and miserable and all pent up, but he refused to sleep with anyone else.  He really tried to make a logical conclusion that Thomas was the best sex partner he’s ever had and no one else could compete…which to be completely honest, Thomas was his first and only sex partner, so much for the competition…

Newt could judge from the way Thomas’ knee bounced without having a drop of caffeine in his system, the scowl on his lips that was set deeper than from just editing, and the way he would occasionally roll his shoulders, Thomas wasn’t having sex either.

Sexed Thomas was a more compliant, less irritable, and had patience that ran for miles; Newt would know, he’s an expert at this point.

Newt stopped side-eyeing him and hummed lowly as he started a draft for his essay.  He heard the pen drop and he glanced back over at Thomas, who was now staring at him with mildly annoyed expression, “What?”

“Don’t what me, you just made that noise when I’ve done something wrong,” Thomas stated.  “I’ve literally been here editing Minho’s fucking history thesis for the last 30 minutes, I said I’d listen to you about Professor Paige, but you said you’d tell me later, what did I do?”

Minho was staring at them with raised eyebrows, “You can tell that he’s angry at you by just how he _breathed_?”

His question went ignored as Newt glared back at Thomas by the harsh accusation.

“I’m not annoyed with you,” Newt snapped.  He felt himself bristle when Thomas just made a small huffing sound, which most people just thought it was a sigh, but Newt knew that it was when Thomas didn’t believe him, “I’m not!”

“You’re lying,” Thomas growled.

“I thought I was the psychology major,” Newt rolled his eyes.

“You are, but I’ve been majored in the studies of basic Newton since I was 15 and advanced Newton since I was 17,” Thomas reminded him. 

“Married,” Minho muttered under his breath and he refused to cower in fear when they both whipped their gazes onto him, glaring at him intensely. 

“I’ll tell you later,” Newt promised.

Minho started gathering his stuff, “Or maybe talk about it now?  I gotta go anyway, Brenda wanted to get drinks.”

“It’s Tuesday,” Thomas frowned at him.

“Your point?” Minho replied.  He finished packing his bag before snatching his mostly scribbled on draft thesis, “Thanks, Tomboy, I’ll have Brenda review the rest of it.  _Annyeong_ , bastards,” he gave them a two-finger salute before scurrying out the café like he was avoiding conflict, and to be fair, he was.

“Talk to me,” Thomas demanded the moment Minho was away, turning his gaze onto Newt now.  “You know that while we’re just fuck-buddies and you can do whoever you want or whatever you want, we’re still good friends, and friends don’t keep secrets.”

“Only when they have life threatening disease,” Newt told him seriously; he saw Thomas’ eyes widen a fraction of an inch before Thomas’ lips thinned into a frown.

“Not the time for jokes, Newton,” Thomas huffed at him, he had his whole body pivoted towards Newt, giving him his full attention.

Newt sighed, the urge to dig under Thomas’ skin fading away, until he was just shrugging at Thomas, “Just couldn’t help notice that you’re tense and I was sighing at you because when you don’t have sex for a long period of time, you get bitchy.”

“Yea, and you get distant,” Thomas pointed out accusingly.  He removed his glasses and put them away as he took calming breath when Newt arched one elegant eyebrow at him in challenge, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap.  I’ve just been too busy to do anything about it and I wasn’t going to bother you with it; I know you’ve been slammed with tests and research projects.”

“You’re right, but this is also why we have this system, why we click; it’s to relieve stress, we don’t check to see if each other is okay and has a clear schedule, we’re not together, Thomas, if you want to have sex, all you have to do is ask,” Newt remined him sharply. 

Thomas could feel an embarrassed blush coming up his neck, “I wasn’t doing it because I thought that, I only worried that it would conflict with you as a friend.  While we work just fine the way we do, sometimes it’s difficult to do as well, we just knew each other personally before we agreed to do this thing.”

“Are you wanting to stop?” Newt asked him, a sudden lurch of fear ran through him, chilling his blood.

“No!” Thomas hastily replied, ducking his head when a few people sitting on the other side of the café looked over to them briefly.  “No, I don’t exactly trust anyone else, other than you…I just know you.”

“Good that, but this is also college, you’re allowed to experiment because you are a consenting adult without having your parents or your sister breathing down your neck,” Newt said; he really wish he’d just shut up, but he was also trying to make it seem like he was fine with how things were and not coming off clingy or attached.

Thomas dropped his gaze down to the table at the mention of his family, fiddling with the red pen that Newt ended up snatching away from him before he broke it.

“What happened?” Newt asked softly, inching a little closer.  “You’re my best mate, Tommy, no secrets,” he reminded gently.

“Nothing serious, it’s just…after Mrs. Agnes, err, mom, found out about us by accident too, she’s been worried that my relationships with all my friends are fucked up,” Thomas sighed, “she’s been having Teresa stop by every other weekend to check up on me.  Teresa has been snitching on me every time she thinks I’m going through something and I have hour long calls with our mom.”

“We really need to make sure that your parents aren’t home and fix that damn lock on your bedroom door,” Newt grumbled; he still couldn’t look Thomas’ adoptive mother in the eye and it’s been almost a year.

Thomas agreed before chuckling softly at the memory of her embarrassed face that following night after dinner, it was just her and Thomas that night, Teresa had gone to bed and her husband was in the den, watching a football game at max volume, and they had a chat about the incident.  He sniggered softly and Newt tilted his head slightly, “Oh, she was just surprised that _I_ was on bottom that night, but I wasn’t about to explain to her that you and I share that position.”

“You had a rough week and you lost your first track meet here, I wanted to make you feel better,” Newt’s cheeks burned, he was flustered, but couldn’t stop talking about it, and was also a little insulted at the jibe by Mrs. Agnes.

“And you totally did,” Thomas reassured him, his gaze glided from Newt’s eyes to his lips and back, he watched Newt do a quick swipe of his tongue across his bottom lip.  “I drove here after work,” he said lightly.

“I’m free for the rest of the night,” Newt replied as he started to shove his textbooks into his messenger bag, while Thomas did the same thing.

They barely made it three blocks in Thomas’ car before Thomas had to pull over into a luckily almost abandoned parking lot when Newt tried to undo Thomas’ jeans while he was driving.

Thomas thought he almost broke his car key when he shut off the ignition before he was crawling over the armrest and Newt was undoing Thomas’ belt and moving onto his button and zipper, before yanking them down midthigh.  He had his mouth latched to Newt’s neck and he bit softly, feeling Newt’s whole-body shiver under his, “ _Fuck,_ ” he moaned softly when Newt slid his hand to palm Thomas through his boxer-briefs.

“Come _on_ ,” Newt demanded, leering up at Thomas.  “Don’t tell me a short break from this and you’ve forgotten how to get your dick in me.”

“Jesus Christ, Newt, chill,” Thomas grumbled.  He had to reach into the glovebox and pulled out a strip of condoms from their last adventurous time in the middle of a corn field, while the idea of being caught by a murderer had been terrifying, Thomas also had a mean-streak for searching out the dangers in life.

Newt was pulling his own jeans down and pulled his shirt off, he pulled the recliner lever and leaned back so that he was mostly lying down and let himself check Thomas out.  He really did enjoy those boxer-briefs Thomas wore, they shaped Thomas’ thighs real nice and Thomas had modeled this brand to Newt before and _fuck_ , was Newt an ass man now.

Thomas kissed Newt a couple times, he felt Newt’s fingers slipping under the waistband of his underwear and was tugging them down, while he slowly kissed up Thomas’ chest after shedding his shirt.  He also grabbed a packet of lube that he warmed between his hands before opening it and slowly kissed the blonde as he prepared Newt, who trailed gentle fingertips down Thomas’ back. 

“Okay,” Newt murmured, nipping up Thomas’ neck.  He could feel Thomas lining up before pushing in slowly, he breathed in slowly as Thomas eased all the way in, until he was just resting against Newt, kissing him slowly.  “You can move now, I’m fine,” he murmured.

Thomas started off slow until Newt grumbled at him and he picked up the pace, he slid his hands under Newt’s thighs, pulling him closer and he felt one of Newt’s hands briefly brush his left thigh and heard a click of the lever and the seat was sliding back and jerked to a stop when it couldn’t go back any further, causing Thomas to slam into Newt, he heard a sharp breath being forced from Newt’s lungs, and Thomas moaned lowly, stilling or everything was going to end fast.

Newt laughed softly when he felt Thomas tense up, “Good?” he teasingly asked, grinning cheekily at him.

“Shut up,” Thomas giggled into his Newt’s neck.  “I know it’s only been three weeks, but shit, I feel like I lost all experience.”

Newt made him move again, “Guess we’ll have to build everything back up again.”

Thomas wordlessly agreed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I'll start updating on Fridays. I'm too impatient.
> 
> Thank you to those who leave kudos, comments, or both!~

“This isn’t a date, is it?” Thomas asked Minho, panic was in his voice.  They stood in the living room of their fraternity, luckily, the other three guys they shared with, Winston, Clint, and Jeff weren’t there, they had already headed out for the weekend, as it was Friday evening and all of them chose early classes to get it over with.

Minho continued to eat his toast before slowly turning to face Thomas, “No, dude, and you’re not wasting the ticket that you bought, so you’re going to ask Newt to go in my place, you know baseball isn’t my thing.  It wasn’t going to be a date even if I was going, because I don’t date dudes who panic that if holding a door for his fuck-toy is considered having an attachment.”

“Fuck, dude,” Thomas took a step back.

“Sorry, man, I didn’t mean it like that and please don’t tell Newt, he will literally murder me for calling him your fuck toy; I swear he was part of the mafia over in London.  Remember the divorce story of his parents he told us in high school? That story is just a coverup,” Minho apologized.

“No, no, you’re fine,” Thomas shrugged at him.  “I’m not exactly your favorite person right now.”

“It’s not you or Newt that’s bothering me, really,” Minho replied to him and he saw the curious look Thomas was giving him.  He frowned as he fiddled with his paper plate, “I’m having a problem with my parents back home.”

Thomas frowned at that, “Do they want you to move back to South Korea?” he asked, remembering that Minho had gotten into an argument over the phone with them about it during their freshmen year of college.

“My mom thinks it would be best, they don’t like that I’m alone over here now,” Minho grumbled to him.  He shook his head to himself, “Hey, don’t let me worry you with my life, I have more or less complicated friends to vent to, as you’ve got a speech to prepare and ask Newt to go to the Mets game with you.”

“I don’t even know if he likes baseball,” Thomas confessed, shoulders slumping.  “It was never something we talked about, I just went to baseball games and dragged him along, he never complained though.”

Minho didn’t have the heart to tell Thomas that Newt simply tolerated Thomas’ over enthusiasm for sports and just smiled and nodded at whatever the track runner was blabbering on about going on in the game. To Minho, personally, and he really hoped that Newt didn’t read this from him with some freaky telepathic powers, but to him it looked like Newt was the bored girlfriend, while her boyfriend raved and cheered or looked like he was about to square up with an opposing team fan in the stands.

“What should I do?” Thomas asked helplessly.  “He said he liked Cricket, it sort of reminds me of baseball, but I don’t know if he likes the American version of it.”

“Only one way to find out,” Minho replied.  He clapped Thomas on the shoulder, “The worst that could happen is that he says no and you get to drink a lot of beer and slam down hotdogs all by yourself and scream and cheer for your team without the fear of embarrassing or traumatizing Newt.”

“You’re not wrong,” Thomas agreed, but he still felt like his stomach was trying to eject itself from his body.  He wasn’t for sure what Newt was up to, as the blonde had been packed down with homework and picking up a couple extra shifts at the campus library and their last encounter of even just seeing each other was a little over two weeks ago during their moment in Thomas’ car.

If anything, it seemed like Newt was starting to avoid him and that confused Thomas, because the other boy went from comforting to withdrawn within moments, even when they had car sex, literally moments after, Newt was mumbling on about needing to get back to his place and get started on his human ethics essay, and during the drive back, Newt had been dozing up until the moment where Thomas pulled up to the curb of the fraternity house that Newt was housed at, as they had agreed when they both got accepted into the same college that they would not room together.  Then Newt had shot out of Thomas’ car, grabbed his backpack and hustled on inside without a look back in Thomas’ direction and the track runner had never felt more confused in his life.

“You still seem conflicted,” Minho observed.  He was drinking some juice now and sitting at the kitchen table, “I mean, if you really don’t want to ask Newt, then don’t.”

“No, it’s not that,” Thomas replied, he felt a slow sigh leaving him until he felt like his lungs were about to give out.  “I’m just worried about Newt, he’s been acting weird with me.”

“You’re both weird with each other,” Minho stated matter-of-factly.  “I’m just telling you, either end what you guys are doing with each other so you can have a friggin normal friendship where neither one of you are second guessing yourselves, or just get together, man.”

“Feelings are complicated and this is just the easiest way,” Thomas shrugged at him.

“No, it looks like everything is far more difficult, dude, you can’t even ask Newt if he wants to go to a  _baseball_  game with you because you think you’re asking him on a date,” Minho told him exasperatedly.  “Some advice on that, if you ever decide to date someone, don’t take them to a sports game as the first date.  They’re too crowded and loud and more times than not, your team is going to lose and your date is going to run away because the majority of people are giant babies when their team loses.”

“Geez, is this a personal experience?” Thomas mused.  He wasn’t worried about making a fool of himself, Newt saw his true colors, the only thing the blonde truly judged him on was his desire to watch  _Homeward Bound_  at least once a week and Newt had called him a masochist because no matter how many times Thomas watched the movie, the ending still got him every time.

Minho rolled his eyes at him, “No, it’s called being considerate of your date, unless they like that shit too.”

“Well, maybe Newt is into sports and wouldn’t mind going to see this game with me tomorrow,” Thomas replied, “as just friends.”

Minho looked ready to attack Thomas with a chair, “Yea,” he said in a slightly strained voice, struggling to remain calm, “only one way to find out,” he repeated himself.

Thomas just thought it was better to agree before Minho actually killed him first before he could ask Newt to go to the game with him, and as he was walking away to find his shoes and go Newt hunting, he was starting to think getting murdered by his best friend was better than having to ask Newt on a not-date.

~~~

“Tommy, what are you doing here?” Newt blinked, he looked up from the computer he was on, he was scanning in books and he just so happened to see someone lurking by the corner of the desk. 

Thomas gave him a small wave; his tongue was already sticking to the roof of his mouth and he couldn’t even breathe; his body felt like it was too hot and he suddenly wondered if he was getting the flu.

Newt gave him a concerned look over, Thomas’ sun-tanned face was washed out and he looked like he was about to barf all over the counter, which was why he was getting the trash can out from under the desk and telling the girl he worked with that he would be right back before he was guiding Thomas to an empty part of the library in the back.

Thomas dropped into a cushioned seat and kept his head down, as Newt worriedly murmured to him, rubbing the area between his shoulder blades slowly.  He looked up at Newt shakily, “I’m not sick,” he whispered.

“You certainly look like it,” Newt frowned.  He felt Thomas’ forehead and cheeks with the back of his hand, he felt a little flushed, “Maybe you should go lie down?”

“I’m not sick,” Thomas repeated.  “I just got nervous.”

Newt’s eyebrows furrowed before smoothing out into realization, “I had completely forgotten that you nearly become catatonic when you get really nervous.  I thought you had gone to therapy for that and you felt better after a year of sessions?”

Thomas was surprised that Newt even remembered that, as they had been freshmen in high school, just becoming friends at that point.  He shakily nodded at Newt, “They did help, I don’t get them as much as I did, but I still freak out before giant track meets, or exams.”

“Thomas,” Newt chided him.  “You can’t keep that stuff bottled up; I’ll worry,” he added in a softer voice, eyes gentle, yet concerned.

That tight knot in Thomas’ chest loosened, like a noose untying from his neck; he forgot how easy it was to be with Newt and he breathed more steadily.  He laughed softly to himself and he heard Newt make a questioning noise, “I panicked because I couldn’t figure out a way to ask you to go to a Mets game with me tomorrow without fucking up.”

“Oh,” Newt blinked.  “Why were you afraid to ask me that?  Sort of silly to panic about something when you know that I’d go with you.”

“I didn’t really want to bother you with it, since you’ve backed off from me,” Thomas said quietly, avoiding Newt’s gaze. 

Newt felt a strong urge to lean over and kiss the frown off Thomas’ face, he couldn’t handle it when Thomas’ soft brown eyes reflected sadness, it made his stomach want to tie itself into knots.  “I’m off in an hour, I’ll come over after work,” Newt informed him. 

“Okay,” Thomas nodded.  He wanted to kiss Newt goodbye, but held himself back, he merely walked Newt back to his desk, gave him back the trashcan before standing there awkwardly for a couple minutes and made small talk with Newt and the co-worker girl until Thomas made himself leave and made a hasty retreat back to his fraternity and wanted to just bury himself under his pillows.

He passed Clint and Winston in the living room, Clint gave him a nod in greeting and Winston waved at him, before going back to their  TV show, and Thomas went back to his bedroom, he stripped down until he was just in his boxers and the loose T-shirt he pulled on that morning before falling face first into his bed and scrolled through his phone; he still felt jittery with nerves, but as that anxiety was leaving him, it made him feel exhausted, and his earlier slight panic attack with Newt drained him too.

He passed out before he could even comment on one of Brenda’s new Instagram pictures that she posted of her new monster she constructed out of scraps of metal.

~~~

Newt grabbed a quick snack before heading over to Thomas’ place; he dug his fingers into the strap of his messenger bag, he could just text Thomas that he was actually busy now after work, but he’d also rather die than ever see Thomas look miserable as he did.  He told himself to man up and move on and he marched himself straight to Thomas’ fraternity and let himself in with the key Thomas gave him.

He slinked inside and saw Clint passed out on the couch and he tiptoed on by upstairs where he walked down the hall to where Thomas’ room was.  Newt figured it was only Thomas and Clint there, as the rest of the place was quiet.

Newt pushed the bedroom door open and he found Thomas napping on his bed, on top of the covers, phone still in hand, and completely stretched out; he swallowed heavily as his ever-active imagination involving Thomas’ body ran away with him when he saw the sliver of back skin that was bared between his shirt and boxers.  He toed off his boots and flopped on top of Thomas, earning a grunt and a muffled protest, “No cuddling, remember?”

Thomas cracked one sleepy eye open, “Doesn’t mean you can’t sleep here because we can have morning activities,” he murmured, voice heavy with sleep. 

“Can’t argue with that,” Newt shrugged and removed his jacket before snatching Thomas’ PSP and turned on the portable device and flopped back against some of the pillows

Meanwhile, Thomas never felt more at ease than he has now and he felt something nagging at his brain, trying to remember something, but he just nuzzled deeper into his pillows and fell back asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyooo! Happy Friday!
> 
> Time to drink and watch Buzzfeed Unsolved!!!

When Newt woke up, he finally realized that he was staring at Minho who was staring back at him from the doorway.  He wondered what Minho was doing at his fraternity and he almost asked if there was an emergency, until he saw that the walls surrounding him were painted a dark blue-gray, they had posters, maps, and other trinkets tacked to the walls, which were completely different from his own bedroom walls that were mostly bare and had a few shelves nailed to them that held books and other knickknacks.

He sat up with a jolt and he looked to his left and saw that Thomas was still asleep, still in the same position, and wearing the same amount of clothes he fell asleep in and so was Newt, for fuck’s sake, he still even had his belt on! 

“Uh, good morning?” Minho blinked, still trying to figure out if what he was seeing was real and he extremely grateful that he wasn’t going to have to bleach his eyes out.  “I was gonna wake Thomas up if he wanted to get breakfast, do you wanna go too?”

It took Newt at least two minutes to process what Minho was asking of him, he almost declined, but he didn’t want to be rude and avoid Minho and Thomas when he going to go with Thomas to a baseball game later that day.

Instead, Newt nodded, “I’ll wake him,” he murmured and he watched Minho leave and shut the door.  He ruffled his hair angrily until he knew that he’d look ridiculous, like one of those early mad scientists, before telling himself to calm down again and counted to ten and counted backwards as well before making himself face Thomas and shook him awake.

“What?” Thomas groaned, burying his face into the crook of his elbow.  He felt fingers being dug into his ribs and he wriggled away, almost falling off his bed until Newt hauled him back from braining himself on his bedside table.  He squinted his eyes open and he saw a very frazzled Newt looking at him, “Newt?”

“Thomas,” Newt responded.

They stared at each other.

“You stayed the night?” Thomas blinked, he rolled to check his phone and saw that it was almost ten in the morning.  He yawned and rolled back over to face Newt and looked over him, “You’re wearing clothes.”

“You’re stating the obvious, and to continue, I wasn’t planning on staying over because we have a no cuddling policy, but you insisted,” Newt drawled.  He looked over Thomas, “And to be fair, you’re wearing clothes too.”

“I am,” Thomas nodded sleepily.  “This is fine, this changes nothing.  Why are we even awake right now?”

“Because Minho wants us to go to breakfast with him,” Newt answered him.  “Now, get up, we’re going to have shower sex,” he said.  He saw the protest forming on Thomas’ lips and he slapped a hand over his mouth, “You promised me sex in the morning.”

Thomas made a muffled response before huffing in defeat against Newt’s palm.  He let Newt take his hand and let himself be pulled off the bed and he stumbled after Newt down the hall and into the bathroom, they did pass Jeff who wrinkled his nose at them.

“C’mon, I just cleaned the shower a couple days ago,” Jeff whined. 

He was answered by the bathroom door slamming shut.

Minho looked up when he heard more than one person walking into the kitchen and he saw that it was just Thomas and Newt, he sipped his coffee, while giving them both a blank stare. 

Newt stared back and Thomas rocked on the heels of his feet until Minho just grunted at them in greeting and got up.

“Breakfast?” Minho suggested to them as a peace offering. 

“Yes, this is the only reason why I’m conscious right now,” Newt replied.  “Your treat, right?”

“I am a broke ass college student, Newt, who do you think I am?” Minho demanded.  He saw the deadpan stares they gave him, “…Yes, my treat,” he grumbled in defeat.

Because Minho was paying, Thomas drove them all to Denny’s because he and Minho could slam back some pancakes, while Newt enjoyed their fruit crepes and coffee.

Once they made it there and were seated that was when Minho started to eye them again, especially when he noticed them slide a little closer to each other in the booth they sat at.

“Minho, if you keep staring at us like that, I’m going to start thinking you want to partake with us,” Newt commented as he glanced at his friend before going back to adding a sweetener to his coffee.

Thomas played it up by dragging his eyes slowly over Minho, who gasped in mock affront, and covered his chest with his hands.  Thomas laughed at the action as Newt just smiled amusedly at his friends.

“I am an honest man!” Minho shrilled.  “I need a faithful suitor to serenade me for the rest of my long life.”

“Good luck,” Newt teased him. 

“I don’t know, I think Brenda could do that, she’s pretty wild,” Thomas suggested to them.

Minho made a face, “She’s like my sister, bro, ew.”

“You’d be the one to friend-zone her when she actually has some compatibility with you,” Newt chided at him.  “At least give her a chance.”

“Mm, I’d rather not, I mean, I wouldn’t want it to be weird if we didn’t work out,” Minho frowned.  “She’s a good person and I love our friendship, I wouldn’t want to ruin it.”

Thomas nodded in understanding, “C’mon, Newt, lay off the guy, he’s happy as he is,” he said, nudging the blonde lightly in the ribs.

“I figured you’d be on board to grill him about his relationships, as he’s been so invested in ours lately,” Newt sipped his coffee and squinted at Minho when the other track runner balled up his straw wrapper and threw it at him.

“I’m allowed to be a concerned friend,” Minho defended himself.  “And I’m only voicing what I see because our other friends are too chickenshit to call you guys out on it.”

“To be fair, you’re literally our only friend who caught us with our pants down, so you have no reason to be afraid of us,” Thomas grinned and laughed when Minho let his head drop onto the table in embarrassment.

“Really?  Even Gally is afraid to approach us?  I’d love to set him straight,” Newt stated.  He was still bitter with the stern looking man when he had drunkenly almost drowned Thomas in a pool during their early days as freshmen; the night had been half-ruined, the only way it hadn’t been a complete shit night was that Clint knew CPR and saved Thomas from dying.

“Newt, you don’t have to fight every person who comes onto your boyfriend,” Minho reminded him.  “But you being jealous is amusing.”

“We’re just friends,” Thomas and Newt stated in unison.

“Right, and I’m actually Choi Minho from the K-Pop band, SHINee,” Minho drawled, taking a sip of his orange juice.  He glanced up when their food was being brought over to them, thanked their server and started to dig in, even when Newt was still glaring daggers at him.

Those comments never really bothered Thomas for long, as it was Minho, his closest friend, who most of the time, was just joshing them, but the only time he got ruffled by it was when it was other people mistaking him and Newt as a couple and he had no idea why, as they never held hands or showed anything to give people that impression. 

He looked over to Newt, the other boy was sulkily eating his strawberry crepe.  Thomas nudged him lightly and he saw the conflict on his face, “We’ll get him back,” he promised.

“Bitch, I’m paying for your food!” Minho reminded him, he balled up his napkin and threw that at Thomas.

“And that’s why you’re our best friend,” Thomas reminded him, smiling at him brightly.

Minho couldn't say no anyway, not because Thomas had puppy eyes, but because Newt was staring at him like he would throw Minho's body into a dumpster if he upset a single cell in Thomas' body

~~~

Thomas drove them back to the fraternity, it was still a little chilly out, so they didn’t go walk around town after breakfast, which bummed him out, but he wasn’t about to make his friends shiver to death.

Minho declared that he had eaten too many pancakes and was going to go into a food coma for a few hours and left before Thomas and Newt could drag him into the living room to play video games.

But Thomas and Newt didn’t go into the living room, they made their way back up to Thomas’ bedroom and softly shut the door behind them.  Newt was still getting used to Thomas’ bed being the other side of the room; a respectful gesture from him to Minho

“We still have a few hours before to game starts,” Thomas said as he kicked off his high-top Vans.  He turned back around to go towards Newt and pushed the blonde to sit down on his bed, “And I have a few ideas to spend those hours on.”

“Yea?” Newt raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yea,” Thomas echoed him.  “It involves taking your pants off,” he said and straddled Newt’s lap to kiss him, fingers dug deep into Newt’s thick, blonde hair.

“Sort of hard to do with you on my lap,” Newt replied when Thomas’ moved his mouth down Newt’s neck.  He shivered and clenched his fingers in Thomas’ T-shirt, “Or are you moving onto another plan?”

Thomas slid off Newt’s lap slowly and pushed his knees apart, “You’re rambling,” he commented as he started with the button of Newt’s jeans.  He flicked his gaze up to him and small smirk appeared on his face, “I forgot how much you loved it when I blow you and just how cutely nervous you get.”

“Shut up,” Newt grumbled at him as a blush was steadily creeping up his face and his knees were already starting to shake.  He really tried not to jump Thomas once his skinny jeans were off and the dark-haired boy seemed to notice that as he placed strong hands on Newt’s thighs to slightly pin him down and started to mouth him through his underwear.

Thomas fought back the teasing grin he wanted Newt to feel when the blonde immediately dug his fingers into Thomas’ hair, hissing his name out and he let go of Newt’s legs and pulled down his boxers.

Newt sucked in a sharp breath when Thomas finally stopped teasing him and took him into his mouth; he always knew when he had learned that Thomas had an oral fixation in high school that he was going to be fucked because of it, and of course, Newt wasn’t wrong.  He felt Thomas grip him by the hips and pulled him closer to the edge of the bed to get a better angle and Newt tried not to buck too harshly into Thomas’ mouth and busied himself with toying with the brown locks and running them through his fingers and whispering gentle praises. 

He quivered when Thomas took him deeper and he wanted to tell him not to strain himself, but if anything, Thomas aimed to please, he was full of surprises, and additionally, he had a laser-focus attention span when he was extremely interested in the subject.  Newt swallowed thickly when Thomas looked up at him and had to will himself not to come so early, it was rather rude in his opinion.  He tugged sharply on Thomas’ hair and he felt the throaty vibration of Thomas trying not to laugh.

Newt might have gagged him on purpose after that.

Thomas wrapped it up pretty quick, he came off Newt briefly to catch a breath before going back down on him and swirled his tongue and sucked hard.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Newt hissed, he bucked back deeper into Thomas’ mouth, who didn’t pull away, just let Newt fuck his mouth until he was done and swallowed him, which Newt thought was going to kill him.  He pulled his boxers back up before shoving Thomas down onto the ground, there was an echoing thud, but luckily no one came running in.

Thomas laid splayed on his back while Newt settled onto his lap, he didn’t get to say anything as Newt had his thumb pressed over his lips as he ground down onto Thomas.  He whined softly at the friction, but Newt shushed him and rolled his hips more slowly, Thomas wanted to touch Newt more, but he knew that look in his dark eyes, Newt was enjoying this just fine and he came when Newt leaned down, bit his earlobe, and ordered him to come.

“So lovely,” Newt murmured, eyes taking in the disheveled appearance of Thomas, his tan cheeks flushed red, the glassy, yet satisfied gleam in his brandy colored eyes, his soft lips were more red, puffier, and slick, and his hair was mused to high hell from Newt pulling on it—he almost wanted to take a picture and leave it as his lock screen.

Thomas wiggled slightly in discomfort when Newt grinded down on him again and had to grab him by the hips to stop him, “I’m not coming in my jeans again, this is already an uncomfortable feeling,” he protested.  “Hop off,” he said and backtracked himself when Newt gazed at him with a leveling stare, “ _please_ ,” he added.

Newt rose to his feet and helped haul Thomas up, giving him slow kiss that Thomas easily leaned into.  He broke it first, but didn’t back off, “We have enough time to nap before we leave, let’s do that, yea?”

Thomas nodded at him, “Gonna shower first,” he replied and kissed Newt once more before going to collect his towel and took off towards the bathroom.

Newt dropped back onto Thomas’ bed and claimed the wall side and buried his face into one of Thomas’ pillows, he liked how they smelled, they had a lingering scent of his body-wash and cologne that was just Thomas.  He pulled the covers over himself, he was getting chilly as he was just in his boxers and a light T-shirt and the heating never worked in Thomas’ room.

He hadn’t realized that he had dozed off until he woke to another body sliding under the covers and briefly pressed up against him, Newt felt the chaste kiss on his forehead and he nuzzled Thomas’ shoulder lightly before settling back down, he heard Thomas’ sleepy sigh before he fell silent too.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, my bad, I forgot to post this on Friday. To be fair, I have a sinus infection and have been sleeping the most I can when I'm not at work; I hate being human.
> 
> This chapter felt more like a Dylmas fic than a Newtmas one lol
> 
> Thank to all those who comment, kudos, or do both!~

They both woke when Thomas’ phone alarm started to beep at them and Newt just rolled over as Thomas got up and yanked the blanket off his bed, earning a low groan from Newt.

“C’mon!” Thomas urged him, jumping on Newt and started to tickle his sides, which had Newt squealing and trying to slap Thomas’ hands off him.  He laughed and had to roll away when Newt finally started to pinch him, “You awake now?”

“You’re such a tosser,” Newt scowled, rubbing the sleep and tears from his eyes. 

Thomas cooed at him before dropping on top of him again and kissed him, “Better?”

“No, and you taste strongly of toothpaste, did you eat the damn tube?” Newt huffed at him. 

“I do it for you,” Thomas reminded him, knowing that Newt didn’t prefer to taste himself on Thomas’ tongue.  He got off the bed a final time, not having to drag Newt off with him, as Newt got up on his own, mumbled about needing to piss and after that they could leave.

Thomas pulled on a dark gray T-shirt and black fitted jeans and his normal gray Vans, he was dressed before Newt came back to pull on his skinny jeans that had been thrown to the floor earlier.  He grabbed his flat-bill Mets cap he got as a present from Teresa about a year ago, it was his favorite gifts of all time.

“God,” Newt sneered when he had finished pulling his jeans back on and was staring over at Thomas, who turned and gave him a confused look.  “I absolutely hate that you look good in those stupid hats.”

Thomas just smiled at him, “Now you know how I feel when you’re too lazy to put your contacts in and wear your glasses.”

“But I’ve always known how you felt about that,” Newt said to him, “we’ve broken two pairs of my glasses during sex, if you don’t remember.”

“My bad,” Thomas didn’t even sound apologetic.

Newt didn’t even bitch at him about it, because Thomas did feel bad about it and had bought him two new frames that he liked.

After getting dressed and grooming themselves a little more, they ate a quick lunch and then left to Thomas’ car.

Newt dropped into the passenger seat and clicked in his seatbelt, “Your place is so empty, I vaguely recall seeing Clint and Winston on the couch and we ran into Jeff, but they’re ghosts!”

“Yea, it’s sort of depressing, all I get is you and Minho,” Thomas grinned.  “I think I see you more than my roommates, since all they do is just silently lurk around.”

“I can easily fix that,” Newt grumbled at him.  “My place is much livelier with Fry constantly cooking something up in the kitchen, Alby likes to read and study out in the living room, Ben has Gally over a lot, so he basically lives with us too,” he listed off.

“Sounds nice,” Thomas smiled faintly as he drove, he did like to hear that Newt was happy with his living conditions.

Newt would never tell Thomas, but the reason why he was living there in the first place was because the place was so bright and it wasn’t quiet for long, the environment reminded of him of Thomas.  A bubble of guilt started to sit in his stomach at that thought, he was starting to relate everything to Thomas at this point; it made him sound obsessed.

“You all right?” Thomas asked, he glanced over to his friend, who had been sitting quietly for the last few minutes, a pensive expression was on his young-looking face.

Newt nodded, “Sorry, was just dreading the thought of going back to class on Monday because I remembered that I have a test in my econ class,” he fibbed.

“Yikes, good luck with that,” Thomas grimaced.  “I think Minho mentioned something about it.”

Newt prayed that Minho actually didn’t because they shared that class and if they really did have a test on Monday, he was so fucked; he’d text him about later.

“Might as well get an additional nap in, we’ve still got 40 minutes until we’re at Citi Field,” Thomas told him.

Newt was already dreading the drive, not because he’d be trapped here, but Thomas had a serious case of road rage, he should have suggested taking the Tube and walking the remaining distance, as it wasn’t freezing out, there wasn’t much wind, and it was mostly sunny.

As they got closer to the interstate, Newt was really starting to wish they hadn’t drove and judging by the way he saw Thomas’ hands tighten on the wheel, he was having some regrets as well.

~~~

“Thomas, I’m not going to help you if you get taken into custody for reckless driving and assault,” Newt hissed when Thomas looked two second away from just blasting into another driver, who had been playing a douche bag game of slow down and speed up in front of them.

Thomas didn’t reply and just kept his thoughts to himself, he already was slightly hoarse from yelling until he was almost blue in the face.  He passed the dick driver and Newt flipped the guy off as they took the next exit to where they were going, luckily, the douche bag driver wasn’t going to the same place as them.

“What a cunt,” Newt growled, eyeing the other driver until they vanished under the overpass.  He huffed and patted Thomas on the knee, “I’m happy that you didn’t kill us or anyone else.”

“I can’t have sex with you if I’m in prison,” Thomas simply replied.  He felt himself smile when Newt just giggled in the seat next to him.  He had to park towards the very end of the overflow parking area, but that was fine, at least they made it and he still had time to blow half his bank on concessions food and drinks.

Newt followed after Thomas, it was crowded out and he couldn’t really walk side-by-side with his friend as people walking against them would shoulder-check him until he was forced behind Thomas.  He jumped slightly when Thomas grabbed his hand, “Tommy, I’m right behind you.”

“But I could lose you any second and if you get lost, you’re good as dead,” Thomas laughed.  “You’ve lived her for six years and you’re still so polite.”

“I’m not going to make an arse out of myself, Thomas,” Newt rolled his eyes and he fought back the happy, squirmy feelings when Thomas just squeezed his hand in response.

They made it to the stadium, got their tickets scanned, and were now making it to the almost mile long concession stands line.

Newt was leaning against Thomas the closer they got to the front, he was getting a little sore from standing, his bad leg was starting to shake a bit and he really hated his old childhood friends back in London for daring him to jump off a three-story building when they had a shitty landing pad at the bottom.

Thomas absentmindedly rested his hand on Newt’s lower back, “You good?” he asked, glancing over to him before looking away and dropping his hand. 

“Leg is starting to bother me,” Newt unhappily stated.  He didn’t like the worry on Thomas’ face, “I’ll be fine,” he promised, “just can’t stand for super long.”

“You know where our seats are?  You can go sit down,” Thomas told him.

“I am not navigating this hellhole without you,” Newt stated firmly.  “I’ll get lost and starve to death before you find me again.”

Thomas laughed and wrapped an arm around Newt’s waist, making him lean more against Thomas, “Guess I’ll just support you until we’ve sat down.”

“Thanks,” Newt said, voice sincere.  He saw the faint blush coming up Thomas’ face and saw him hastily look away.

“Anything for a friend,” Thomas said lowly, low enough that it sounded like it was a reminder to himself.

After almost standing in line for 30 minutes, they finally got their snacks, beer, and water before going off to go find their seats.

Newt had to stumble after Thomas this time, as both of their hands were full with food and drinks, or else Newt would have his hand occupied with Thomas’.  He had to shuffle past some people, who grumbled at them for nearly stepping on toes, but he schooled his face, apologized softly, and trekked after Thomas until they got to their seats, and he gracelessly fell into his chair.

“Sorry about dragging you out here,” Thomas sheepishly apologized. 

“I wanted to be here,” Newt shrugged off his apology.  He settled more comfortably, giving a slight shiver when a slow draft washed over the stadium, he hoped it would warm up some more, he wore a thick sweater, but apparently, he was still cold.

“Should have brought another layer, Newton” Thomas chided as he was removed his hoodie, voice slightly muffled before he was passing it over to Newt.

“You’ve only got a T-shirt on,” Newt frowned at him.

“I run hot,” Thomas winked and still offered the hoodie to Newt, which the blonde just sighed exasperatedly at him, before thanking him and tugged the oversized hoodie on.

Newt burrowed himself into it, he felt his heart pick up when he was engulfed by warmth and the lovely scent of Thomas.  He stole some of Thomas’ nachos and he shared some of his pretzel bites with him too, he felt so content with the moment that he didn’t mind when his ears were assaulted by loud cheers by other people, or when he almost got beer dumped onto him by Thomas, who got too excited with what was going on.

During the break session, Thomas checked his phone and frowned slightly before texting something to someone and rolled his eyes when he must have gotten a response immediately back.

“What?” Newt asked, feeding Thomas a broken piece of nacho.

“My sister,” Thomas said, “she said she stopped by my place, but no one was there, so now she’s worried about me.”

“Jesus, you’re not suicidal, what the hell is her problem?” Newt frowned.  His eyes widened briefly, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap like that.”

“No, you’re fine, I understand what you meant,” Thomas patted him on the shoulder.  “I don’t think she believes that I’m seeing a Mets game.”

“Thomas, you live and die for this team, it’s a little terrifying to be completely honest,” Newt drawled, earning a laugh from Thomas. 

“Group selfie, c’mere,” Thomas demanded, smushing Newt close and gave him bunny ears, smiling closed-mouthed, while Newt smiled brightly and flashed a peace sign.  He sent the picture to Teresa, “There, now she’ll have to believe me and send it to mom and get off my case.”

Newt wanted the moment to continue, but the break ended and Thomas was back with the other fans on their side, cheering, clapping, and hollering through the remainder of the game.  He tried to be respectful and watched some of the game, but he was on his phone too, he got a text from Minho.

_From: Minho_

_To: Newt_

_Aww, you guys are disgustingly adorable together.  Don’t be mad bro, but Brenda is already preparing wedding invitations._

_To: MinHOE_

_From: Newt_

_Fuck you guys._

_From: Minho_

_To: Newt_

_< 3_

 

Thomas looked over to Newt when he saw the other scowling at his phone, “What’s up?”

“Your sister sent the picture to Minho, who undoubtfully shared it with half the campus by now,” Newt informed him.  “I’ll skin him and make him into a rug.”

“We’ll get KFC without him,” Thomas promised.

Newt happily agreed to that before he looked to Thomas, even though he was still paying attention to the game, “But this doesn’t bother you?  How our friends tease us about getting together?”

“No,” Thomas replied to him, frowning for a moment before scowling when of the Mets players got tagged out, “Oh, come on!” he huffed.  “It doesn’t bother me because we’re happy as with our arrangement, right?”

“Yea,” Newt agreed weakly.  Luckily for him, Thomas was so absorbed with the game happening in front of him, he didn’t comment or pry.

Sometimes, Newt wondered what it would have been like to date Thomas, to be able to call him his boyfriend, to bring him home for the holidays, to share his clothes with Thomas for more than just a mishap of the weather, to lie in bed with him and count the freckles on his face and not just share the bed for sex.

He wondered what it would feel like if Thomas loved him back.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd the drama begins!

They cleared out pretty quickly after the game had ended, Thomas was practically singing with joy because his favorite team won and despite that he wanted to linger after, he could tell that Newt was getting pretty irritated by the other people.

Once they were loaded into Thomas’ car, he turned on the radio and turned it a little low so that if Newt wanted to nap on the way back to their college, he could and he would focus and restrain himself from driving like a psychopath.

He jumped a little and jerked the wheel when he felt Newt grab his hand and pull it into his lap, “Newt?”

“Hmm?” Newt hummed, eyes half-lidded; he was still wearing Thomas’ hoodie, the sun was out again, he was warm and comfortable.

“Never mind, I answered my own question,” Thomas lied, he could feel a cold sweat starting on his neck that was working down his back.

The drive was quiet on the way back, as Newt had been dozing off most of the time and Thomas’ mouth was pulled into a thin line, while his not so quiet mind was going off a mile a minute and he was surprised that Newt couldn’t hear him having an internal panic.

When they arrived at the curb of Newt’s fraternity, Thomas slowly pulled his hand away and nudged the blonde lightly, “Hey, we’re here at your place,” he said.

Newt blinked sleepily and frowned, “Oh, I’m sorry, I hadn’t meant to fall asleep.”

“It’s all good, buddy, I promise,” Thomas reassured him.  “You saved yourself from an hour of my ramblings.”

Newt laughed and fondly shook his head, “Did you want to come inside?  I’m pretty sure Ben is the only one in today.”

“Can’t, got a text from Minho earlier, he said that Teresa is over and apparently, there’s a pretty intense game of Connect Four going down and they’ve all been drinking, meaning I’ve got to play bouncer once Jeff throws himself across the table to get his challenger,” Thomas explained.

“Have fun with that,” Newt mused.  “Well, I guess I’ll actually be productive and finish my final draft of my essay and start studying,” he sighed unhappily. 

“Just don’t work your brain too much,” Thomas said, he leaned forward without meaning it and before he could play it off, Newt met him in the middle and they were sharing a soft kiss. 

They pulled back at the same time, sharing a sheepish smile.

“I’ll see you later, Tommy,” Newt said and fled the car before Thomas could get another word in.

As Newt ran inside, still wearing the hoodie Thomas lent him, Thomas hated that he wanted Newt to wear his hoodies and jackets all the time.  He banged his head on the steering wheel a few times before driving back to his fraternity house in a complete dismayed mood; he could feel the change happening, the way his heart hammered in his chest when Newt was near him, and how he would miss him the moment he left.

He needed to back off Newt for a little while, just until he got himself sorted again and as he got closer back to his place, the more he felt himself just wanting to turn around and go back to Newt.

“Hey, dude, you just gonna stand in the doorway like a creep, or you gonna help me put the fire out that’s in the backyard?” Minho demanded as he kept pulling at Thomas to follow him.

Thomas blinked and his world refocused and suddenly, he was in his fraternity, “What?”

“Thomas, do you ever stop looking confused and asking questions?” Minho groaned.  “The fire,” he said slowly, “is in our back yard, we need to put it out or we will get ratted out,” he continued just as slowly.

Thomas smacked Minho on the arm, “Why the fuck is there a fire?!” he demanded as he ran after Minho.

“Winston,” Minho simply replied.

“That’s another board game we’ve lost to the flames,” Thomas reminded him. 

“And still counting,” Minho sighed.

“Count this, bitch!” Winston shouted and squeezed more lighter fluid onto a burning patch of grass where there was a melted, black lump that smelled terrible and there were Connect Four pieces scattered along the grass.

Teresa stood to the far side with Clint and Jeff, fearfully watching the whole thing go down, “We tried to stop him,” she said as soon as she saw her adoptive brother come outside.

“How?” Thomas asked.

“We took his alcohol,” Jeff said and he saw the shock on Thomas’ face.  “I know, I know!  We weren’t even thinking about it until it was too late!”

Minho was trying to get Winston, but he had to run circles around him because Winston kept trying to douse him in lighter fluid, “Dude, fucking stop!”

Thomas sighed angrily before charging forward and wrestled Winston away from the fire, they rolled in the grass for a while and his hands were slick from the lighter fluid when he chucked the container away, “Winston, I will lock you in the basement!”

“You can’t put me in the Pit!” Winston cried.

“We will if you keep setting shit on fire!” Minho growled, he was helping Thomas haul up Winston, who couldn’t even stand on his feet anymore, as he was drunk and exhausted.

“Grab his legs, I got him here,” Thomas sighed as he lifted Winston under his armpits.  He looked over to the other three, “Put that shit out and throw it in the metal trash bin by the shed.”

Minho grinned as they took Winston inside, “Thomas, you look so hot when you’re ordering people to do stuff and your voice gets all growly, no wonder Newt doesn’t share.”

“Shut up,” Thomas huffed at him.  They struggled a little to get Winston to his room and dropped the half unconscious college student on his bed once they got into his room, and Thomas went to go get the bathroom trash can and a bottle of Gatorade, “Trash can is here, Winston and drink this, don’t die in your sleep.”

Winston merely gurgled.

Minho kept the door ajar so Winston could yell for them if he needed anything before following Thomas down the stairs, “Okay, now, talk to me, man, you look frazzled, we got time before the other three come in.”

“Minho, games were on fire outside and I just wrestled Winston, yea, I’m going to be frazzled,” Thomas gritted out.  He scrubbed a hand across his face, “I’m too fucking tired for this.”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” Minho rolled his eyes, “you and Newt?  You’re not wearing your hoodie and I saw that Newt was wearing it in the picture.”

“He was cold, so what?” Thomas glared.  “I wasn’t going to be a dick about it.”

“Something must have bothered you, because you’re never this upset,” Minho commented.

“Listen, Minho, Newt and I are nothing more than fuck-buddies, get it through your head, I don’t know why the fuck you care so much about it, but fucking lay off,” Thomas snapped.  He saw that his sister was standing in the door way, staring at him worriedly, “This stays here in the house, stop running to your mom every time you think I have a problem,” he angrily said to her.

“Dude, don’t yell at your sister, it’s not her fault you’re acting like a child,” Minho glared at him.

Thomas bit his tongue from saying anything else, he turned on his heel and stalked upstairs, he ignored Teresa’s call for him, and slammed his door, locking it shut, he put his headphones in and listened to all his favorite, loud songs until he could only picture the lyrics and the pounding instruments beat out the heavy feeling in his heart.

~~~

Thomas had successfully brooded the remainder of the weekend, while avoiding his roommates, ignoring his sister’s worried texts, and he barely text Newt back at all, as he was still on the fence because of what happened earlier that Saturday.

When Monday rolled around, he skipped his morning ritual of getting coffee and headed straight to class.  He managed to pay attention in class, even though there was still a stinging angry pain from Saturday and he was still confused on what grounds he stood on with Newt. 

He made himself shove it to the furthest part of his brain and he made himself keep away from his friends in the other classes he shared with them, the worst class, which was his foreign language class, was because he shared it with Newt and Minho.

It was an hour of awkwardness, it was apparent something off, as a few of their classmates who all three of them liked were sharing curious glances to see Newt and Minho sitting at their usual table, while Thomas sat on the clear other side of the classroom, earphones in as he was working on the new lesson that had been given to them.

Newt didn’t know what was going on, but he didn’t try to approach Thomas as he saw that Thomas was clearly blocking them all out, avoiding eye contact, and keeping his body pivoted away from them.  He turned to Minho, “He only acts like this when you or I have pissed him off on a tenfold and I know it wasn’t me,” he stated.

Minho slumped in his chair, “Thomas is acting like a child.”

“I can say the same for you,” Newt drawled.  “He was already stressed because Teresa was over to act like a spy for their parents, what else was said or done?”

Minho bit the inside of his lip briefly, “The first thing that annoyed him was that Winston had set Connect Four on fire in our backyard and he was pissed about that, but then the second part is mostly my fault…I got too involved again.”

Newt leaned back in his hair and nearly rolled his eyes to high heaven, “Minho, you really need to stop worrying about us,” he said lowly.

“Dude, this just isn’t healthy, I don’t want something to happen and then a major fallout happening,” Minho replied with a frown.

“Thomas and I already agreed if that were to happen, we would get joint custody of you, I would claim you on the weekends, seeing as you’d see him throughout the week because you live together and run track together,” Newt teased him.  He snickered at the light shoulder punch, before growing serious again, “Minho, if we weren’t fine, believe me, I would at least tell you that we were taking a break of some sort.”

“Yea, which Thomas told me that you two would take a far longer break if you caught the feelings or some shit,” Minho scoffed.  “No offense, man, but I can see that you’ve got tangled up in something with him; you’re not as happy, you seem pained.”

“This is the downfall for being friends for nearly ten years,” Newt muttered. 

“Friends as in all of us, or your “friends” thing with Thomas?” Minho quoted to him. 

“All of the above,” Newt confessed.  “I am a problem, I’m breaking the majority of our rules.”

“Uh, pretty sure he is too, didn’t you guys fight about not giving each other things?  He gave you his hoodie to wear, which by the way, you’re still wearing,” Minho eyed the dark gray hoodie that had the Mets logo on the front.

Newt blushed, “I woke up late and grabbed the first thing I could find,” he lamely defended himself. 

“Right,” Minho drawled, playfully smirking at him.  “But seriously, Newt, you guys just need to talk about this.  We’re now legal in age and legal to drink, you both need to come to a common ground, I hate seeing the both of you tiptoeing around each like this.”

“Am I that obvious?” Newt blinked.

“Sorry, but yea, man,” Minho apologized, “but Thomas isn’t all that innocent either.  I know he’s conflicted because he couldn’t even ask you to the game on Saturday because he thought he was asking you out on a date.”

“Explains why he was nearly heaving when he showed up at the library that day,” Newt flashed a glare over to Thomas, who remained oblivious to his surroundings.

Minho patted his shoulder sympathetically, “You like him, and it’s totally okay.  I mean, Brenda still has a crush on Thomas and he bats for the other team, so I still think you have a better chance at bagging him.”

“Mm, he’d sleep with a girl, Thomas doesn’t really care, as long as he finds you interesting,” Newt replied somewhat dismissively.  “Is that why you won’t ask her out?”

“No,” Minho shook his head.  “I, just, uh, don’t find anyone really appealing.  Looks yea, but the other shit that follows during the relationship, nah, not really my thing.”

“Marriage?” Newt questioned.

“You’re really gonna make me say it?” Minho demanded.  He exhaled slowly when Newt continued to give him a blank stare, “I’m asexual, dude.”

Newt’s eyes widened slightly, “Oh.”

“Yea,” Minho said quietly, slightly embarrassed.

“Minho, why didn’t you say anything?” Newt asked him.  He looked around and saw that no one was paying them any mind, since everyone else was either working on homework or reading, as their professor had finished the lesson early and was now reviewing test papers.

“I dunno, I guess you guys just assumed I didn’t like anyone like that,” Minho shrugged at him.

“Not to sound insensitive, but was your first time that bad?” Newt asked him. 

Minho spluttered, gaining some looks this time and his cheeks grew pink, “Dude!” he hissed softly, “No!  I just don’t care for it.  I mean, it was okay-ish sex, I mean, it was fine for me when I was 17 at the time, Misty didn’t seem to hate it either, but I told her how I felt about the whole thing and she didn’t throw a fit.  We never told anyone, so why did it matter on my preferences?  I was fine with just floating through life like this.”

“And that’s perfectly fine, Minho, you do what makes you happy,” Newt replied kindly.  “I’m sorry about those pushy comments about how you should date Brenda.”

“No, you didn’t know,” Minho waved him off.  “You’re been respectful towards me during this, I should do the same for you and Thomas, and I swear, after this, I’ll back off.”

“Thank you, Minho, I think that it’ll help defuse the situation,” Newt told him, relaxing somewhat.

“But you have to promise me that you’ll talk to him, you’re the bigger man, it seems, Thomas is like little kid who is too shy to confess their feelings to their crush, so he’ll just pathetically stare at you when you’re not looking,” Minho stated.  “It’s pretty depressing.”

“You don’t know how he really feels about this whole thing though,” Newt reminded him. 

“I can see enough,” Minho shrugged.  “You don’t have to jump the gun right now, but it would probably help you both out if you’re able to sort your feelings sooner rather than later.”

“Maybe you should get a professional job in counseling,” Newt laughed.

“Nah, man, I don’t understand people, I understand numbers,” Minho reminded him, grinning lightly.

~~~

It had been a few days after his conversation with Minho in their foreign language class and he hadn’t seen Thomas once since Monday, as that was the only class they shared together through the whole week.  Newt had not been able to get a hold of him when he had gone over to the track runner’s house either and Minho was zero help.

Newt hated that he couldn’t corner Thomas, the brunette could be ninja like when he wanted to be, and it annoyed Newt to no end.  He text him a couple times before he went to work and he never got an answer back and he would check his phone occasionally and he never heard anything.

He was getting anxious about the whole deal, which dragged his shift out.  He paced the shelves, reading every title, he had everything sorted and he wanted to go home and just lie in bed and mope over Thomas like a broken-hearted teenager girl and listen to early albums of Taylor Swift on repeat.

Newt was actually humming _“Tear Drops on My Guitar”_ when he heard someone clear their throat softly from behind him and he saw Thomas standing a few feet away from him, looking guilty, “Thomas,” he greeted him coolly.

“I’m sorry,” Thomas blurted.  “I was avoiding you because I was struggling with myself and where I stood with you and that wasn’t fair to you, I should have told you that I was going to need space to clear my head.”

Newt’s heart leapt at that, “And how do you feel now?”

Thomas chewed at his bottom lip in nervous habit, “I don’t know, we’ve had this fling for five years.”

“And you just want to remain having this _fling_ for the rest of our lives?” Newt asked him flatly, he crossed his arms as he spoke.  “Thomas, are you finished with this?  Is this where we stop?”

“I don’t know, Newt,” Thomas let out a frustrated groan.  “I don’t want to lose you.”

“As friends or as shagging partners?” Newt questioned him.

“Friends, I’m afraid if we stop, then things will get awkward,” Thomas told him, not looking him in the eye.  “You’re my best friend, Newt, and I’m fucking up.  I can’t handle relationships.”

“You don’t know that,” Newt told him.

Thomas looked at Newt now, “You and I both know nothing good comes out of relationships,” he reminded him.

“Thomas, don’t you dare start to shut me out again,” Newt growled when he saw the guarded expression crossing his face.  “We’re getting older, we can’t keep this stupid game between us that we made in fucking 11th grade.”

“I don’t want to lose you,” Thomas whispered.  “We work better this way.”

“You will if you think that I can just keep this going,” Newt said just as quietly.  “I know I swore that I’d never let anyone hurt me after seeing how my father tore my mother apart emotionally, but I know you, I’ve seen every shade of you, your darkest to your brightest; I’m not afraid of you, I trust you.”

Thomas’ throat constricted and his hands felt clammy, he took a step back, “I need time to reflect on this,” he said hoarsely.  He saw the brief flash of hurt cross Newt’s face, “I’m not running away from you.”

“It sure seems like it,” Newt gritted out.

“We promised that we’d step away if things got too intense,” Thomas stated, clenching his jaw.

“Again, with the stupid, bloody rules!” Newt snarled.

A co-worker of Newt’s popped their head from the station, “Everything good, Newt?” she asked.

“Yes, sorry, Kristen,” Newt apologized to her before turning his attention back to Thomas, leveling him with a glare.  “If you’re too afraid to face your feelings, then don’t bother, Thomas, I’m not going to deal with this anymore.  You want to know something though?  I like you, Thomas, probably more than you deserve right now.”

Thomas remained silent and stared at Newt like he was a deer caught in the headlights.

“You told me you loved me first,” Newt added, voice shaking.  “It was towards the end of our freshmen year, we celebrated your birthday at that stupid karaoke bar, we got wasted, we went back to your place, we had sex and you told me that you loved me.”

“I was drunk, Newt,” Thomas said it like an excuse.

The sting of that response made Newt’s eyes water before he fought the tears back, “I know, which is why I went back to London for almost three weeks, trying to sort myself out, but it didn’t change how I felt about you.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Thomas asked him.

 “Because I know that you wouldn’t love me back,” Newt whispered.  “It would end up like how it is now, you looking like you’re about to bolt and avoid me for the rest of college.”

“We’ve been coming to each other for sex for five years, I think I can be shocked that you’re suddenly saying that you love me,” Thomas replied.  “I’m not running away from you, but I think it would be best if just stopped seeing each other.”

“We were never together in the first place,” Newt said just as coldly; he had his hurt stuffed to the furthest part of his brain, focusing on the anger to help distract him.

“You’re right,” Thomas agreed.  He took a step back, “Then we’re done here?”

“Yea,” Newt agreed.

Thomas nodded briefly, cutting his gaze away from Newt and turned away from him, walking fast, ridged steps away from the blonde, who now stood trembling in place.

It was Thursday, usually the day when he and Thomas would study with Minho at their usual café, the day when Newt would fall more for Thomas, awestruck with him as a person, laughing at jokes, sharing sly glances that would gross Minho out, before heading back to one of their places to have sex, and continue the cycle.

It was Thursday, the first Thursday for Newt when he felt his first heartbreak, the first Thursday for him when he could still feel his love and affections for Thomas still remaining, and the first and last Thursday he saw Thomas.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for posting such a short chapter and a pretty boring one...and then being extra lame because there will not be an update next Friday, as I'm going to be out of town all next week.
> 
> I do thank you for reading this chapter, and for all of you who leave comments/kudos, as they really do make my day!
> 
> Have a wonderful and safe Memorial weekend.

“Thomas, I could literally kill you and make it the slowest death for you possible,” Minho gritted out when he finally got the whole story from Thomas almost a week later.  The only way he managed to get it from him was when he had locked himself in the bathroom with Thomas when he heard his roommate walking down the hall and going into the bathroom.

A tired, ragged looking Thomas stared back at him; dark circles under his eyes that were also bloodshot, “I fucking ruined it.”

“Yea, you fucking did!” Minho exploded.  “He tells you that he has feelings for you and you just walk away from him?!”

“I can’t love someone!” Thomas shouted.

“Thomas, you’re not a fucking psychopath!  You are capable of having emotions, you can love people, you love Newt!  I’ve watched you both interact for fucking years!  Neither one of you will sleep with anyone except each other!”

“Because I trust him!” Thomas angrily shouted. 

“You two are fucking _loyal_ to each other, you fucking idiot!” Minho resisted the urge to start shaking Thomas, the last thing he wanted was to physically fight Thomas in their cramped bathroom.  “You’re so afraid of what you saw as a kid and what you witnessed in your life of other fallouts between other couples that you’re stopping yourself from even trying,” Minho said calmly.  “Thomas, you are a genuinely nice person, you fucking _care_ about other people and more importantly, you’ve always cared what Newt thought, you always asked him for his opinions and you remember everything he likes and hates, that’s more than what just friends-with-benefits would do.”

“I’ll fuck it up if we started to date,” Thomas whispered, his eyes were starting to water.  He already had cried the majority of the week, missing classes and skipping track, and just lied in bed, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom as he felt like he was sick with the flu.

“Thomas, you walking away from Newt was your biggest fuck up, and he’s not doing any better,” Minho told him.  “He’s fucking wrecked, man, you have to fix it, or you’ll lose him forever.”

Thomas let out a shuddery breath, “I will, I promise, I just need to figure out what I’ll say.”

“Sure, man, just don’t take too long, I care about you both,” Minho said, he clapped Thomas on the shoulder.  He saw that Thomas was still upset and he cautiously wrapped his arms around Thomas, pulling him into a hug, he felt him tense up, “You’re still my best friend, Thomas, I love you, Dude, just please don’t let this ruin either of you.”

Thomas was just nodding at this point, “Yea, yea, I’ll talk to him.”

“Thomas,” Minho sternly said, giving him a harsh stare. 

“I swear, just give me this weekend, Minho,” Thomas pleadingly said.  “I’m going to go home and try to figure myself out.  You know I can’t face Newt if I haven’t built up a least a four-layer defense system and a proper apology because he’ll just shred me like tissue paper.”

Minho pursed his lips before nodding slowly, “You’re right, Newt would eat your panic like candy and sit on his throne of bones, while he watches you squirm.”

He cracked a small smile, letting out a soft laugh, “So, you understand that I would need at least a weekend to collect my shit, right?” Thomas stated, giving him an exasperated stare.

“Yea, just make sure you text him or something, dude, you only share one class with him, I share three classes with him and the two that you don’t have that we share, he acts like his puppy ran away,” Minho told him. 

“I will,” Thomas swore.  He pulled his phone out his pocket, “Here, look, I’m going to do it right now,” he said.  He pulled up his text messages and tapped his most recent messages with Newt, he made sure to just show Minho Newt’s name, rather than the steamy sexts that he and Newt had been exchanging a few weeks before their encounter of awkward confessions, well, not awkward, they were being completely honest with each other, which they both liked, but only because one only of them was being true with themselves—Newt.

Thomas quickly typed out a message, explaining that he was going home for the weekend and said that he would be back midafternoon Sunday and asked Newt to have lunch with him to talk about what was going on between them as clearly, things were changing, even if Thomas wasn’t ready, but he was 22 now and things couldn’t stay the same as they were before when he was 17 and when nothing else matter when he was a junior except fucking Newt, or Newt fucking him, or having the occasional lustful thought of Newt’s solid ten of a mother or Mrs. Sons, his former math teacher.

Minho only let go of Thomas when the message was sent, “Was that so hard to do?”

“Minho, I am two seconds away from collapsing into the tub and drowning myself, I’d rather die that deal with emotional confrontation,” Thomas seriously replied.  He grumbled when Minho just crushed him into another hug and slapped him fondly on the cheek a couple times, “I’m serious.”

“I know you are, but I am so proud of you,” Minho responded, mushing their cheeks together as he pulled them back into another hug and rocked them both side to side, while ignoring Thomas’ annoyed groan.  “I know Newt will appreciate you taking the first step as well.”

Thomas made a pathetic sound in response, “Minho, he’s going to kill me.”

“Maybe, does that mean I can have your PSP?” Minho asked.

“You’re a terrible friend,” Thomas declared and shoved Minho off him.  “Now get out before I piss myself.”

Minho didn’t need much prompting after that.

~~~

Thomas tried not to let the radio silence from Newt’s end bother him.  It had only been one day, even though when he and Newt usually text, they response to each other within half an hour and it was Friday, Thomas had finished his last class about an hour ago and he was now packing a couple outfits for the weekend and he wondered if he should stay home the whole weekend, plus the holiday off they had on Monday.

The decision was decided for him when he saw his phone light up and Newt’s name popped up and he could feel a flush of shame when he had practically dove over his bed to get it.

_What time Sunday?_

_Probably around noon, that cool?_

_Sure.  See you then._

Thomas chewed nervously at his bottom lip worriedly before responding:

_Lunch at deli sandwich shop at the corner?_

_Sure._

Thomas didn’t respond that after, it was obvious Newt wasn’t in the mood to talk to him.  He sighed dejectedly and slowly packed up his backpack and text his mom, told her than he was coming home for the weekend and asked her if he needed to pick anything up while he was heading over.

His mom responded almost immediately, just telling him to come straight home as she had gone the store the day before.  He zipped his bag shut before lugging in on one shoulder, he told Minho he’d see him later when he saw his friend on the couch, watching TV with Winston, who survived after nearly drinking himself into a coma.

He put his bag in the back seat of his car before slowly walking to the other side of his car; he almost bitched out from going home, mainly because his adoptive mother would know something would be amiss, as he rarely came home and without a doubt, Teresa would have ratted him out.

Thomas made himself get over it and got in his car and started his twenty-minute drive back home in silence, he did use the time to crisis about Newt and what he should say or do when they would meet up for lunch on Sunday.  He bit at his bottom lip nervously, as the anxiety started to settle in and he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, the majority of him wanted to go back to when he called it off with Newt and should have just rolled with the relationship that Newt clearly wouldn’t mind having with Thomas.

His heart flipflopped in his chest a little painfully when he remembered that Newt told him that he trusted him, knew him enough to show this vulnerability to him, as normally, Newt had perfect composure about his emotional and mental state, which was terrifying in its own way, because from observation, no college student had their shit together, even if they were faking it.

The steeliness that Newt emitted was also just what he used to protect himself, Thomas never commented on it, because that harsh shield of guarded eyes or blank face had never been used towards him before and he now knew why Newt was unapproachable from a stranger’s point of view.

The sudden disinterest that Newt also expressed had hurt, but Thomas knew he deserved it; Newt had confessed to Thomas how he felt, exposed himself emotionally, and he had walked away from Newt.

He felt himself starting to become overwhelmed with guilt that his eyes started to burn and he hastily blinked the tears away and him dying in a car accident wouldn’t fix the situation, and the last thing he wanted was to make Newt even more upset and leave it unresolved, because as logical and scientific Newt was, Thomas knew him well enough when he was distraught and he would do something stupid, like try to talk to his ghost through a Ouija board and then accidentally summon a demon; the idea had him chuckling to himself even though he just wanted to cry it out. 

He knew that Newt still cared about him, as they had such a long history together, because if Newt hadn’t cared, he wouldn’t have text Thomas back and agreed to meet him for lunch.

That small reminder gave Thomas a small silver lining that he could perhaps fix what he had said and done and maybe he could convince himself that having a relationship wouldn’t be as terrifying as it seemed to be, especially if it was with Newt.

He drove home feeling a little lighter.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hap Friday, enjoy some light angst.
> 
> I promise to hopefully have it resolved in a couple chapters lol

His adoptive mother met him in the foyer, her gentle smile made the tense pull in his gut relax somewhat, and he met her warm embrace; her familiar gentleness and love made him almost get choked up.

“How are you?” she asked, taking a small step back, her warm hand cupped his cheek, her gray eyes looking over his face worriedly.

“I could be better,” Thomas confessed to her quietly.  He heard her sigh softly, a small frown on her lips before taking him into another warm hug, “I’m not in something that I can’t handle; I’m just an idiot,” Thomas tried to reassure her.

“Don’t say that, you’re a smart boy,” his mother chided him, slapping him lightly on the arm.  “Thomas, there’s nothing in this world that you could break, you’ve always been such a careful person.”

The sincerity on her face almost broke Thomas’ façade of being nonchalant about the whole ordeal, so he just nodded, thanked her, kissed her forehead, and asked if she needed any help regarding to dinner or outside work.

“Mm, I need to repaint the shed,” she said, taking him towards the kitchen where she had made cookies.  She flashed a half-heated glare towards the den where her husband was nestled away, “Your father was supposed to do it last weekend, but he was “busy” with the boys from the construction project they’re all working on.”

Thomas laughed lightly, “Of course he was.”

“But we can worry about that later,” she had him sit down and put a couple cookies on a tea plate in front of him and got him a glass of milk.  “I just went grocery shopping, so what do you want tonight for dinner?”

“I’m fine with anything,” Thomas shrugged to her, dipping his cookie in his milk.  The gooey, warm chocolate felt like it was filling the void in his chest and he would have to remember to take a few cookies back with him that’s if his adoptive father didn’t get to them first.

His mother huffed, “Teresa is just as indifferent.”

“Tacos?” Thomas suggested, eyeing a bag of tortillas sitting on top of the breadbox. 

“That can work, do you mind cutting up the lettuce and tomatoes?” she asked, heading to the freezer to thaw out the ground beef. 

“Sure can,” Thomas said and stood up, taking his plate and glass with him to rinse them off.  “Gonna go throw my bag in my room and take a quick nap, you can wake me when you need help preparing dinner, and thank you for the cookies,” he smiled.

“Of course, sweetie,” she smiled and swiped away the tiny smudge of chocolate off the corner of his mouth. 

Thomas went to the front door where he left his bag by the shoes and grabbed his bag and headed upstairs, he walked down the hallway that was lit up by the nightlight and passed Teresa’s room, the door was open and her room was dark, he wasn’t for certain if she was coming home too and he silently hoped she wasn’t, because he didn’t want to deal with what happened last weekend.

He knew he shouldn’t act so petty with his sister, the emotional drama that he got himself in wasn’t any of her fault.  Thomas stepped into his bedroom that he had only come back to during the major holidays, his room was always as he left it, but with less dust and vacuum marks in the carpet.  With a sweeping glance, he took in the familiar deep blue walls, the baseball jersey that was encased in a frame and mounted on the wall across from his full-sized mattress, the computer desk that was shoved in the corner across from his bed that still had the soccer ball lamp sat on it, his lacrosse metals and track trophies took up the two shelves that were over his desk, and his closet door still had an old All Time Low poster on it that he had taped to it when he had been a freshmen in high school, the only thing that was missing was his TV and games, which he had taken with him to his fraternity.

Thomas dropped his duffel bag at the foot of his bed and sat his bed with small huff, he sat hunched for a couple minutes, silently brooding to himself and told himself that he would come up with a solution regarding Newt the next day, as he promised his mother that he’d help her with dinner, which she usually started around 5, he checked his phone and saw that he still had a couple hours, so he removed his hoodie and his belt, putting them over his desk chair, before crawling under the covers, facing the wall, and willed himself to catch at least an hour nap.

~~~

“You’ve been oddly quiet,” Sonya murmured, she dipped a couple fries in her ketchup before eating them.  She eyed her brother, who was still moodily stirring his straw in his drink, “You at least have something witty to say or bitch about…”

“I’m sorry, Sonya,” Newt apologized, he met his younger sister’s gaze, “I shouldn’t ignore you when you’re not the problem.”

Sonya’s gaze cut over briefly to the vacant spot next to her brother, “I couldn’t guess who you’re pissing at,” she commented sarcastically and she scowled at Newt when he flicked his balled-up straw wrapper at her.

“I’m wasting my time, aren’t I?” Newt asked her suddenly, he poked at his barely touched burger, equally annoyed with himself because he went to the only burger joint that Thomas would approve of and he had taken Sonya here without realizing it until it was too late. 

“With me or Thomas?” Sonya asked and rolled her eyes at the blank stare Newt was leveling her with.  She took a sip of her drink before reaching across and patting Newt’s hand gently, “You two have had spats before, what makes this any different?”

“I told him that I loved him and he told me that we shouldn’t see each other anymore,” Newt flatly stated.  He glared at his burger again, “I’m such a bloody _idiot_ ,” he hissed lowly to himself.

Sonya blinked in astonishment at the confession, she figured it would have to take a drinking match she’d plan between her brother and Minho before she even got half of the details.  She pulled her hand back slowly, humming lowly at that, “Honest confession, brother?  I know that I’m a few years behind you in experience of relationships, and as much as I adore Thomas, you shouldn’t try to cling for a stable relationship that clearly isn’t going to work.”

“I know Thomas,” Newt defiantly replied, still refusing to look at her.  “He wouldn’t leave without a direct answer.”

“You just told me that he said that you two shouldn’t see each other anymore,” Sonya reminded him, trying not to sound so harsh.  She felt shock run through her when she saw his eyes get misty and it was unnerving to see her usually stoic brother showing so much of his feelings, as he had tapered down his emotions after they moved to New York.

“He text me and asked that we talk over lunch this Sunday,” Newt murmured, fighting back the blush of shame he could feel starting to spread.  “I’m not for certain what that means, but it can go either of two ways: we end everything or we get together.”

“Be careful, Newt,” Sonya frowned worriedly.  “I just know Thomas well enough to know that he comes off as a nice person, I don’t know him as…deeply as you,” she flushed and ignored Newt’s scoff.

“He’s different,” Newt told her and he saw the brief expression of sorrow on her face.

“People say that all the time for the people they love, but are the ones they’re defending so different?  He could pull this stunt again,” Sonya said, fiddling with her napkin.  She truly had nothing against Thomas, but it did scare he how one boy could make her almost Vulcan-like brother lose all chill.

Newt couldn’t argue with that, but he trusted Thomas, trusted him enough to give him the benefit of the doubt.  He grumbled at his lack of effort to argue with her, “Promise you’ll help me hide the body?”

“Sure, if I didn’t know that you’d keep his corpse in a meat freeze in the basement, ya freak,” Sonya replied.  She gave him a bewildered look when he sat back and looked surprised at her as if she had figured out his whole plan, “Oh, my _God_ , you are a psycho!”

“I’m joking, I would never!” Newt grinned at her horrified expression.  “…Maybe, I mean, you _have_ seen him.”

“You’re blocked from my life,” Sonya declared.

“I think I’ll live,” Newt mused.  He was glad he had lunch with his younger sister and a brief chat with her, even if it wasn’t the happiest conversation with her.  He ate some of his burger and ate some fries before pushing it away from him, realizing this was the burger that Thomas also enjoyed and that made the food settle like a rock in his stomach and he worried about his upcoming meet-up with Thomas, but he made himself bury the worry; it was only Thomas, the only boy to hold his closed off heart in his hands and make into putty.

~~~

Newt met with Minho later after his lunch with Sonya, he took her back to their mum’s house, stuck around to chat with their mother before he was looping back to campus to enjoy his extended weekend while he could. 

“Sup, bro,” Minho greeted New at the door of the frat house, he had an Xbox controller in his hands and they both ignored Winston’s shout of anger from within the living room.

“Bad time?” Newt asked him.

“Nah, we’re playing Worms and he’s pissed because not only can Jeff and Clint patch up wounds effortlessly, they can also take lives just as well,” Minho informed him.

“Mm, this game is dangerous,” Newt said, following his friend inside and dropped onto the armchair, as Minho relocated himself next to the slaying duo.  He and Alby had banned the game from their own fraternity after Gally had flipped the coffee table and Ben had almost ruined the seven-layer dip Fry had made.

They watched one of Winston’s green worms get obliterated off the map and the grieving boy took a drink of his beer, while Minho made a poor trumpet sound in memory of the fallen worm.

“I hate you,” Winston told Jeff, “but that was an amazing banana bomb toss.”

“Thank you, I’ve had my practice in when I’m not trapped in the clinics,” Jeff responded.

“Then you should be terrible!” Minho shouted.

“That’s when I come in to help sharpen his abilities,” Clint piped in. 

A couple rounds later, Minho was out, Winston had a few worms left, and Jeff and Clint were practically one brain at this point.

“C’mon, let’s go drink on the patio,” Minho said to Newt, clapping him on the shoulder.

Newt forced himself not to get worked up with his friend because he knew was going to happen next.  He wordlessly followed him outside after Minho grabbed them both a beer and sat down on one of the chairs on the stone patio, he spied the charred grass and there were still some remains of what looked like pieces to a board game in the grass.

“It was another game lost to the flames,” Minho informed him, following Newt’s curious gaze; he tipped his bottle to the dead grass before taking a swig of his drink.

“You’ve really got to stop drinking and playing competitive games, they don’t mix well,” Newt chided him.  He idly stretched out in the chair, squinting slightly due to the sun and thumbed the neck of his beer bottle, “Tommy’s back home, yea?” he asked out of the blue.

“Yea, did he not tell you?” Minho asked him, looking over to him with raised eyebrows in surprise.

“Relax, he doesn’t have to tell me everything that he does,” Newt rolled his eyes.  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, “And yes...he did tell me that he was going home.”

“And you didn’t believe him?” Minho frowned.  He saw the way Newt looked away, “Newt, Thomas is an emotionally constipated idiot, but he’s not a liar.  We’ve known him since we were basically kids, he’s always been honest with us since the start.”

“I know,” Newt bitterly commented, he took a swig of his beer and frowned at the ground.  He heard Minho sigh softly, “Before you get all bent out of shape about us, I did agree to have lunch with him this coming Sunday.”

“You don’t seem very happy about that,” Minho pointed out hesitantly.

Newt fought back the slight burn he could feel appearing in his eyes, “We left on possibly salvageable terms, but I’m afraid that this Sunday will either make or break us.”

“You two can’t avoid each other forever,” Minho reminded him.  “I am sorry that you both are in uncomfortable positions…I don’t know how to help you guys, I don’t want to choose sides, and I won’t, because you two are both my best friends, but I will listen if you need to vent.”

Newt said his thanks and lowered his head, “I’m just an idiot, I ruined it first and if I hadn’t said anything, we wouldn’t be in this predicament to begin with.”

“But you would have been miserable,” Minho reminded him.  “You love Thomas,” he said and saw Newt grimace at the wording, “you do, don’t you?”

“Yes, you bloody idiot,” Newt hissed, getting riled up for having emotional confrontation.  He saw Minho raise his hands slightly in a non-threatening gesture and he apologized meekly, “Don’t be sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped.”

Minho nervously swirled his drink, biting back the burning question he wanted to ask his friend, but he was afraid that it would anger him, he saw that Newt was already agitated.

“Out with it, Minho,” Newt ordered him, nearly staring him down.

“What…what will you do if Thomas doesn’t want a relationship?” Minho asked him softly.  He saw that Newt looked conflicted briefly before schooling his face, “That bad?”

“Honestly, I have no idea what I would do,” Newt confessed, the dull ache in his heart that had been lingering for the past week made itself known on a tenfold and he hastily downed the rest of his beer before slumping more in his seat, nibbling worriedly at his bottom lip.

Minho wanted to reassure him that Thomas wouldn’t be a complete ass about it, but at the same time, he wasn’t for sure, as he only knew Thomas on a platonic level, he knew that Thomas a good friend, a loyal friend, but he didn’t know Thomas like Newt did.  He let out a silent sigh and sipped his drink, watched the sun set, and let himself be silent company.


	9. Chapter 9

Dinner that night hadn’t been so bad, Thomas had woken himself up in time to take a quick shower, collect himself, and get downstairs to help his mom prepare dinner.

His adoptive father had lumbered out when his wife called out that dinner was ready, he gave Thomas a brief hug and ruffled his hair affectionately before going to sit down at the table.

Thomas helped his mom place the food dishes on the kitchen table and grabbed his father a beer, a lemonade for his mom, and a water for himself before shuffling towards the dining room, he paused briefly at the doorway, he saw the way his adoptive parents interacted, he listened to the light laugh his mom let loose at whatever his dad had said, saw the way his father leaned over to kiss her affectionately on the cheek before taking her hand into his own after they had loaded up their plates, and how the just enjoyed their quiet company.

He wondered if that’s what he and Newt would become, he never heard or saw his parents fight, they did have their squabbling some days, but they easily forgave each other, they always remembered dates and anniversaries, they had cookouts, bringing all their friends, who were married, most had children as well, while some their friends preferred to have pets over children.  Thomas knew that Newt would rather have a dog or a cat, as he was intimidated by children, but Thomas didn’t mind kids, he liked them to an extent and didn’t mind to baby-sit on the weekends or over summer break for his parents’ friends.

Thomas made himself move into the dining room and gave them their drinks before taking the seat across from his mom and his father was sitting at the head of the table.  He made a couple tacos and just listened to his parents talk about what they’ve been up to and wanted to know if he was coming home for the holidays.

“I know your Aunt Jean wants you to come see her and your cousins, Abby just had her baby about a month ago; she’s going to come home for Thanksgiving,” his mom said.

“Laurie, don’t force the boy to do things on his vacation,” his father said lightly.  “You were in college once, you know all you want to do on break is sleep and eat and be with friends.”

“Dad, it’s cool,” Thomas shrugged at him.  “We have the week off for Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving is only one day, besides, if Grandma Verna is gonna be there, I’m not missing her and Grandpa’s honey ham and pumpkin roll.”

“I knew we raised you right,” his father grinned, slapping Thomas on the knee. 

Thomas merely rolled his eyes, as he smiled at his dad’s overjoying attitude, and started to dig into his food, listening as his father talked about the game he just watched and shared a fond, yet exasperated look with his mother every time he got heated about foul play.

His parents cleaned up together, while Thomas meandered off to the backyard, he heard his mother during dinner that she needed to put the pulled weeds from the garden into the trash and he figured that he could do that for her.  Thomas grabbed the bucket from the shed that he agreed could use a fresh coat of paint, and he’d work on that Saturday if it came to it.

He started tossing the weeds into the bucket when he heard his name being called and he looked up and saw a boy with untamed, curly brown hair, cheeks pinked with joy that helped express the wide smile on the boy’s round face every time his face peeked over the privacy fence, “Hey, Chuck,” Thomas smiled, he walked over to the privacy fence and stepped on the middle board and watched Chuck bounce on his trampoline.

“Thomas!” Chuck beamed, “You’re home for the weekend?”

“Yea, weird, I know,” Thomas chuckled.  He leaned his weight onto his arms that were braced on the flat tops of the boards, “How’s senior year treating you?”

“Not that bad,” Chuck replied indifferently, he stopped bouncing and dropped onto it, he patted the area next to him and watched Thomas easily maneuver over the tall gate, to the ground before sliding onto the trampoline.  “I got a girlfriend; do you remember Mackenzie?”

“Nice, dude!” Thomas grinned to him.  “Yea, I think she was part the freshmen group I led around the high school, right?” he really only remembered Chuck from his group, because the boy had been so shy and kind, so Thomas had taken to him instantly to make sure he made plenty of friends and didn’t have any problems with the “too cool to act like a fucking decent human being” kids.

“Yea,” Chuck nodded to him.  “We became good friends at the end our junior year, we were chem partners and she’s really smart and loves shop class as much as I do,” he smiled.

“I’m glad you found someone who is just as obsessed with whittling as you are,” Thomas teased him and laughed when Chuck stood up to bounce him.  He let himself get bounced for a couple minutes before standing up and started to try to double-bounce Chuck, who laughed loudly and fell down, giggling for Thomas to stop so he could stand back up.

“How’s Minho?  Is he here too this weekend?” Chuck asked when they both had settled back down.

Thomas grinned at the fanboy crush that Chuck still had on the Asian boy since middle school, “He stayed at the dorm this weekend, sorry, Bud,” he apologized.

“Ah, no worries, wanna make s’mores later?” Chuck asked, he looked up to the sky and saw that they still had at least a couple hours before sundown and have a backyard campfire.

“Sure thing, buddy, but I’m going to finish up cleaning the garden; I’ll be back over in an hour, sound good?” Thomas asked as he moved off the trampoline.

“Yea!  I’ll make sure that we still have chocolate, my dad’s been having a rough week and he binge eats candy when he’s stressed,” Chuck rolled his eyes, smiling as Thomas chuckled at that.

When he hopped back over the fence and started to collect the rest of the weeds, he felt his pocket vibrate and he checked his phone and saw that Minho had sent him a blank face.

T: ‘ _What?’_

_M: ‘Talked to Newt, it was sort of depressing, bro.’_

Thomas dropped his head back and let out a long, annoyed sigh.

_T: ‘Stop trying to fix my nonexistent relationships.’_

_M: ‘I was worried!  You two are my friends!!  Newt it still sad about everything…’_

_M: ‘I shouldn’t be saying anything about him, but I’ve been drinking.”_

_M: ‘I’ll literally die if you two stop being friends.’_

T: ‘ _Go to bed, Min.’_

M:  ☹

Thomas left him on read before chucking the weeds into the bucket a little more aggressively than he had been earlier and he paused for a brief moment, wondering if he should text Newt, he gritted his teeth slightly at his own hesitancy, because this was only Newt.   

He wiped his hands free from dirt before pulling his phone back out of his pocket and shot Newt a quick text, just wondering if he was okay and if they were still on for Sunday.

Thomas didn’t dawdle for a text back and went back to work and after he was done with that, he headed back inside, got freshened up, and trotted back downstairs where he found his mom sitting at the kitchen table, reading on her iPad and had a cup of tea within range.

“Hi, Sweetie, thank you for cleaning up the garden,” his mother smiled.  “Oh, Teresa text me after dinner, she said that she’s coming home tomorrow afternoon and staying through the long weekend.”

Thomas nodded to that, “I’ll be leaving Saturday night, I have plans to do on Sunday.”

His mother frowned slightly, “Thomas, is there something on your mind?  You don’t have to talk about it, if you’re not comfortable to say anything, but I am here to listen.”

“Thanks, mom,” Thomas murmured, ducking his head shyly at her worry.  He kept his eyes averted, “I’m going over to Chuck’s for a few, he wanted to talk for a bit.”

“Of course, have fun,” his mom smiled kindly to him, but the worry was still prominent in her eyes.

Thomas quickly left the kitchen and went through the backyard deck doors and headed over to the fence again, he could smell the fire and see the light faintly through the boards.  He climbed over and saw Chuck already setting up the snacks and had laid out a blanket, “Hey.”

Chuck waved at him and sat down on the blanket and poked at the firepit with a stick, “I managed to squirrel away the last of the chocolate,” he informed his friend, passing him a Hershey’s bar, he had sat the marshmallow bag and graham crackers between them when Thomas sat down.

The older boy picked up on the sticks that Chuck must have scavenged for and thanked him for his hard work, which had Chuck giggling at him.  He stuck the marshmallow on the stick and held it over the fire, he felt himself starting to relax again and was glad that Chuck didn’t mind keeping quiet, Thomas enjoyed the soft sounds of crickets in the distance, the warmth from the fire, and the occasional crackle of the wood popping; he only wished that these nights could be the normal again, he missed having campfires with his friends that they’d make on the beach, getting tipsy on cheap alcohol, laughing, and roughhousing in the sand, laying out on the towels and watching the stars.

The nostalgic yearning made his stomach twist and his eyes watered.

“Dude, you’re charring,” Chuck pointed out.

“Shit,” Thomas grumbled, whipping the marshmallow out of the fire and blew it out, he scraped some the bubbling black layer off before mushing it onto a graham cracker and smushed it between chocolate and another piece of graham cracker.

Chuck pulled his marshmallow back and beamed as his was perfectly golden.

“Listen, boy scout, not all of us have the magic ability to make perfect s’mores,” Thomas teased him.

“Yea, unless you’re me,” Chuck smugly replied and laughed when Thomas threw a handful of grass at him.  He dusted himself off and happily munched on his warm treat, he passed Thomas a bottle of milk.

Thomas twisted the cap off and took a swig to help chase down the slightly burnt taste and recapped the milk before setting it off the side before flopping onto his back and gazed witfully up at the night sky; the stars weren’t very bright in the city, but it was still comforting to see some of them.

“Geez, if becoming a college student includes sighing at least the whole day and night, looking torn between homicidal rage and sleeping in a coma for a year, and scarfing down cheap food like it’s your last, maybe I might skip the whole thing of torture,” Chuck stated when he looked over to Thomas.

“Mm, it’s not so bad, other than preparing for upcoming tests, projects, and finals,” Thomas shrugged.  He rolled onto his side, “Dude, just don’t ever take classes that are at 8 in the morning, you might think that you can do it because you’ve had school at 8 am for the most of your life, but I swear, 8 am in college feels like 4 am and you’ve most likely only had maybe two or five hours of sleep, depending on how well you planned your schedule.”

Chuck stared at him wide-eyed in disbelief, “You have to plan a schedule to _sleep_?!”

“Prepare to take some lunches on the run, or not eating until 7 at night,” Thomas informed him.  “Some days are rough, even if you have a schedule made.”

“That sounds terrible,” Chuck whispered.

“Just depends on how well you have your shit together, make sure you make good friends who try to balance the line of having fun and keeping their grades in check,” Thomas informed him.  “Don’t worry about it, Chuck, I know you’ll do fine, you’ve always been a studious kid, you catch on fast, and I’ve seen your planners, you write everything down, tab and note stuff, hell, you didn’t even need me for that mentor shit in school.”

Chuck’s cheeks pinked at the praise and he bashfully thanked him before making another s’more.

Thomas just smiled at Chuck’s shyness and jumped slightly when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, he reached for it and rolled over onto his side, he saw that it was a text from Newt, almost an hour later.

_N: We’ve been drkain_

_Drinking*_

_A lot._

_I miss you and I’m sorry for this stupid conflict._

Thomas blinked in astonishment when he received multiple texts at once from Newt.  He didn’t know how to reply to that, if Newt was drunk, he didn’t want to accidently offend him. 

_N: Wnt me to come over?  I can.  Your house?_

Alarm shot through Thomas, not because Newt wanted to come and see him, but because he was scared that Newt would drive over after he had been drinking.  Thomas sat up, “Chuck, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bail out on you, bro, but my friend is about to do something stupid and I have to go get him.”

Chuck looked at him worriedly, “Go get them, Thomas.”

Thomas hurried back over to his house and dashed upstairs, he heard his mom chide him for running in the house, he went to his room and grabbed his keys and dialed Newt as he grabbed a jacket.

He heard that Newt picked up, but the background music was too loud and he vaguely heard Newt’s greeting, “Go outside or another room, I can’t hear you,” Thomas ordered him.  He was heading back downstairs and went into the living room, “I’m going to pick up Newt and Minho, they’re drunk and I’m trying to figure out if they need a ride home.”

His parents shared a concerned look.

“We can take the minivan,” his mom said.

Thomas waved them off, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.  Love you guys,” he said and he was out the door and in his car.

“Thomas?”

“Newt, are you okay?” Thomas demanded as soon as he heard Newt’s voice over the phone.  “Where are you?  Are you at my fraternity or a bar?”

“Bar, we’re at Levi’s Pub,” Newt mumbled.

“Who else is with you?” Thomas asked, he was on the road and heading towards downtown, he knew it would take him at least 30 minutes to get there.

“Just Minho.”

“Find him and stay with him.  Did you two drive there?” Thomas kept inquiring him and he heard Newt’s aggravated huff at the questions.  “Newt, don’t, I freaked out because you’ve been drinking, I’m not going to let you endanger yourself or Minho.”

“For a second, it almost sounded like you cared about me,” Newt bitterly replied.

Thomas stopped himself from sighing angrily, “Just go inside, Newt, it’s chilly outside, and you’re downtown, stick with Minho, I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” he said and hung up before dropping his phone into the passenger seat and made himself calm down.   

He sped only a little and dreaded the fact that there wasn’t going to be any roadside parking and he wasn’t in the mood to pay at least 10 dollars for garage parking.  Thomas saw the bar and he threw his caution lights on before pulling to the curb that was painted yellow, he was extremely grateful that the place he picked allowed him to see the small table that Minho and Newt were sat up, which Minho saw him, waved happily and was pulling on Newt, who had a frown on his face.

Thomas stood outside his car and watched them slowly make their way to the door, he lost them towards the front as those windows were blurry and he only had to wait another minute before his friends walked out.

“Thomas!” Minho said loudly, a smile on his face.  “Dude, why didn’t you say that you were gonna be here tonight?”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Thomas said, his tone was a little sharp.  “Where’s your car?”

“We took a bus,” Minho informed him, pulling Thomas into a hug, “Bro, it is so good to see you.”

“It’s still Friday, Minho,” Thomas sighed.  He had to struggle to push Minho into the backseat, because his friend kept wanting to cling onto him and hug him.  After that, he turned and saw Newt, he frowned when he saw that Newt wasn’t wearing a jacket and was wearing a loose T-Shirt; Thomas took off his jacket and passed it off to Newt, who just stared at the jacket being offered to him.

“I’m fine,” Newt mumbled, stepping away from the streetlight he had been leaning on, he grimaced as his shirt got stuck on some jagged nails coming out the wooden post, but just focused on keeping himself levelheaded for the ride back to campus.

Thomas ignored the brief sting of hurt from the rejection and headed to the driver’s side, he found Minho leaning over the center console, fiddling with the radio, “Minho, put your seatbelt on.”

“But music!” Minho whined.

Thomas dug under his seat and found his CD booklet that had all the CDs he and his friends had made as kids and passed it back to him before telling him to get situated again before pulling away from the curb and shut his hazard lights off.

Newt listened to Minho giggling over CD names and listing off the random songs that he remembered that were burned onto some discs, he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the glass of the passenger side window.

“You got sober real quick,” Thomas stated abruptly.

“Took a minute for the call to set in to realize that you were coming to us,” Newt muttered.  He opened his eyes when Thomas hadn’t said anything and discreetly looked over to him and saw the boy had his lips pulled into a line and that he was clutching the steering wheel tightly.

Minho thrust a disc of his choice between them, “I finally found something that wasn’t mostly Blink-182 or All Time Low, God, Thomas, you’re such a small-town punk.”

“If I could understand Korean, I’d probably enjoy K-Pop more,” Thomas shrugged at him and took the disc and felt his stomach flip unhappily when he saw that it was disc that he and Newt had made for Minho’s birthday, he had Thomas keep it because Minho’s parents hadn’t had a CD player in the house that they had once owned and Thomas usually drove his friends around, so Minho listened to the disc while they drove around.

Newt must have saw it too, because Thomas saw him look away and stare outside, watching the streetlights pass by and his hands were clenched into fists.

Thomas put the disc in and songs from _Moulin Rouge_ started to play, mostly the songs that Ewan McGregor had taken part in as they all had weird crushes on him during their sophomore year of high school, and Minho was still a big fan of musicals.

Newt felt his eyes burn and he glared out the window, he jumped when he felt Thomas’ warmer hand overlapping his fist, he looked over to him, even in the dull light from the speedometers, he could see the light blush on Thomas’ tanned cheeks, and he relaxed his hand and let Thomas hold his hand.

“Chuck has missed you, Minho,” Thomas said when the song ended, he glanced at Minho in the rearview mirror.

“Awh, I miss him too!” Minho cooed.  “Dude, can we just stay over?  I miss your mom’s breakfast and I wanna see Chuck,” he said, he was pulling himself forward by the passenger seat and was stretching the belt.  He looked at Newt, “Newtie, come stay with us!”

Newt rolled his eyes and pushed Minho’s pouting face out of his own, “I will if you shut the hell up.”

“Yes!” Minho cheered, throwing a fist pump and immediately grimaced when punched the roof.

“Bro!” Thomas scowled.

“Sorry!” Minho apologized.  He settled down and went back to singing softly to himself, while a small scheming smile went unnoticed on his face.

His plan had worked just fine.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ughh, I did not know how to end this fic, I just stared at my Word document, trying to figure out a better ending than this cheesy ending, but I could not figure out how to end it properly.
> 
> Anyway, thank you to all of you who stuck from the beginning to the end, thank you all for your wonderful comments and kudos to this fic. I know the Newtmas fandom is mostly dead, but it's nice to know that there are still some people clinging onto this ship lol. The fic was mostly easily to write, I sort of remember the books, I do remember that Thomas preferred Newt over any other boy in the Glade, and because Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Or as I call him, Thomas Boat-Gangster) and Dylan O'Brien have such wonderful chemistry, on and off screen.
> 
> Thank you all again so much for reading!~

Thomas drove them back safely to his house and parked his car in the driveway again.  He carefully pulled his hand out of Newt’s, who had dozed off during the drive.  He looked back at Minho, who was nodding off, “We’re here,” he said, poking Minho in the knee.

Minho nodded groggily before struggling to find the door handle and was grateful that he was wearing his seatbelt, because the door swished open and he would have eaten the concrete.  He stumbled his way behind Thomas, who was holding up Newt, who was also stumbling, he watched Thomas fiddle for his keys and then they were inside.

Thomas saw that his parents were still up and moved from the living room to the foyer once they heard the front door open, “Sorry, looks like they’re crashing here.”

“That’s okay,” his mother assured him.

“We’re happy to have them too,” his father smiled tiredly to him.  “Night, Kiddo, glad you made it back safe,” he clapped Thomas on the shoulder and said goodnight to Minho and Newt as well before heading upstairs.

“Do you boys need anything before I go to bed too?” his mom asked them.

“We’re good, thanks, Mom,” Thomas kissed her cheek and let her go up the stairs first before helping Newt upstairs and kept checking behind him to make sure that Minho was still there and using the railing.

“You remember where the guest bedroom is?” Thomas asked, he realized it didn’t matter as he saw the guest room light on and cloth ruffling, so he figured his mom was preparing the bed for Minho.

“Sure do, dude, night,” Minho blinked tiredly and headed towards the room, thanked Thomas’ mother for her generosity and helped with what he could.

Thomas’ parents were aware that he and Newt were “still together” and his mom didn’t comment as they passed the guest bedroom together and headed into Thomas’ room.   

Newt flopped onto the bed, and kicked off his shoes and removed his belt, tossing them on the floor at the foot of the bed, along with his jeans, before worming his way under the covers, he felt the bed dip and Thomas was in next to him, “We’re breaking rules,” he drunkenly mumbled, most his words muffled by the pillow.

“Yea,” Thomas muttered in agreement; he put his back to Newt and just listened to him breathe evenly until he was asleep.

~~~

Newt was usually an early riser, but when he woke, he felt so exhausted that he wondered if he had even slept that night or spent it tossing and turning.  He was on his back, staring bleakly up at the room ceiling, the ceiling fan circling lazily like a vulture above its dying or dead prey.  He currently felt like prey, as he was in the lions’ den, so to speak, but he’d willingly offer himself up as a quick snack, just to avoid confrontation.

He looked over to the left of him, the space next to him was empty and cold; Thomas must have been up for a while, and he couldn’t judge the time as the alarm clock on the computer desk was off, and the blackout curtains Thomas had over his windows only allowed a sliver of light to come in.

The bedroom door opened slowly as he closed his eyes and Newt didn’t bother to move his head, he heard muffled footsteps coming towards him, a soft clatter of a cup being placed on the bedside table; he didn’t feel like opening his eyes that felt like lead.

A gentle hand carded through his hair and was surprised with himself when he didn’t jump from the contact of warm, soft lips being pressed to his cheek, before the footsteps went back towards the bedroom door and he caught the last second of Thomas exiting the bedroom.

He made himself move ten minutes later, he rolled sluggishly to his side before wiggling to the end of the bed and pushed himself to sit up, Newt muffled his groan when the world felt like it was shifting at an alarming rate; he held his head in his hands for another minute before reaching over to the glass of water and sipped it gingerly.

Newt shuffled his way to the bathroom through half closed eyes out of muscle memory, took care of business, found the spare toothbrushes and proceeded to scrub the disgustingly fuzzy feeling from his tongue and the roof of his mouth.

After that, he made his way downstairs, he didn’t see Minho in the guest bedroom and he squinted as he was assaulted with more daylight, he could smell breakfast, which had his stomach growling and lurching and he just decided in general to skip it, as he loved Laurie’s cooking and refused to scar himself from it.

He did go to the kitchen and greeted her, which she gave him a sympathetic smile and asked him if she could get him anything, “I’m okay, thank you,” Newt replied.

She must have saw his eyes wandering around the kitchen, “Thomas is out back, painting the shed, and Minho is out there too with Chuck,” Laurie informed him.

New thanked her before going over to the glass sliding doors and he absolutely hated how fast his mouth dried up to see Thomas in a loose muscle tank-top, ripped jeans, and hands speckled in baby blue paint.

He must have lingered too long, as Thomas’ mother was suddenly behind him, startling him, and he turned around and saw her amused face and was holding a tray that had ice filled cups and a pitcher of lemonade.

“Newton, dear, would you mind running this out to the boys?  Thomas has worked so hard and Minho is helping Rick in the garden,” Laurie smiled to him.

Newt nodded and carefully took the tray for her and went out the glass doors.  He set the tray down at the picnic table and saw that Thomas wasn’t paying any attention, his back to Newt as he painted even stripes down the front of the shed.  Newt poured a glass and walked down the stone walkway to where Thomas was, he stood a few feet away; he felt like he was lurking as Thomas didn’t even seem to sense him there.

Thomas instead slowly removed his top and tossed it to the side.

Newt frowned and moved his gaze to the side, “You’ve known I was here the whole time,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Maybe,” Thomas grinned cheekily at him over his shoulder.  He turned to face Newt and he huffed in amusement when Newt kept his eyes averted and took the glass that was outstretched to him.

Newt cut his gaze to give Thomas a curt stare, “Tommy, I’m in no mood for games.”

“I never said I was either,” Thomas easily replied.  He took a sip of the drink, not once breaking eye contact with Newt, he lowered the glass from his lips, “Thank you,” he nodded to him, he gestured with his cup, “I thought the heat was going to kill me.”

Newt’s eyes raked down Thomas’ shirtless, toned, golden torso and he barely refrained himself licking his lips, “Yea.”

Thomas raised an eyebrow at the mindless reply, “Sure the heat hasn’t gone to your head?” he worriedly asked and stepped towards Newt.

Before Newt could say anything, Minho popped from the garden, he had a hose, battle screeched, and ran at his two friends, putting his thumb over the end of the hose to make a spray.

“Minho!” Newt and Thomas shrilled and darted away from him.

Chucked was bouncing on his trampoline, cheering loudly as he started to throw water balloons at the two boys who were now trying to dodge Chuck’s attacks and Minho who was charging at them.

Thomas grabbed Newt’s hand and dodged Minho again and managed to get inside, his mother looked up and rolled her eyes fondly, “We were attacked, we lost the war, the shed remains unguarded with the water dragons outside,” Thomas told her solemnly.

“Oh, no,” Laurie held the rag she was using to dry the dishes to her chest, “Whatever shall we do?”

“Summon the Father Dragon,” Thomas replied.

“You left him to die,” Newt reminded him.

“Hmm,” Thomas rubbed at his chin.  He shrugged his mother, “All is lost.”

“Worry, not, child of mine, we will see another sunrise,” Laurie winked.  “I’ll make cookies and see if that will get us a victory.”

“It’s Chuck and Minho, you’ll win every battle with your cookies,” Thomas grinned. 

Newt nodded to her seriously, “Thomas has the point.”

“Well, I now have a very important point,” Laurie said, pointing at them, “the both of you are ruining the carpet, get changed,” she then gestured to the stairs.  “Lunch will be ready in an hour, boys!”

Thomas still had Newt’s hand in his own and took him upstairs to his bedroom.  He let go of him when he went to the dresser in his bedroom and dug through it, pulling out dry clothes. 

Newt took the offered clothes and went to go the bathroom to change and he jumped when he felt Thomas grab his wrist, “What?”

“You’ve never hidden yourself from me,” Thomas frowned.

“I normally wouldn’t, but that was before you decided that you just wanted to keep me around as a fuck toy,” Newt reminded him, tone level.  He watched Thomas’ shoulders slump, “I’m simply reminding you on where we stand, don’t be a twat about it.”

Thomas shifted from foot to foot before folding his arms, “Then let’s talk about that.”

“Not if you don’t mean it,” Newt shook his head.

Thomas gave him an exasperated look, “If I didn’t want this conversation, then I wouldn’t have brought it up.”

Newt was still scowling at him, “Why must we, when I know that you don’t want to be with me?”

“Who said I didn’t want to be with you?” Thomas demanded from him, he tossed the clothes to the bed and crossed his arms, he was giving Newt a harsh glare.

“You did!” Newt snapped.

“I never said I didn’t want to be with you, I said that I had to figure out what I wanted,” Thomas argued with him, but kept his tone level.  “Newt, I didn’t just say that to be a dick, I wasn’t going to lie to you, because you’d know if I was upset about being in a relationship immediately, and I know that you’d refuse to even _look_ at me for lying to you.”

Newt swallowed back the snappish comment he wanted to let loose, but Thomas was right; he would have never spoken to Thomas for a long time because he would feel so upset for Thomas not being truthful towards him.

Thomas saw the pensive expression that Newt had, but he mostly saw that Newt didn’t seem so hostile towards him, “The thing that we had was about honesty, and I wasn’t going to endanger the friendship we had outside of our physical relationship,” he said carefully.  “I couldn’t let myself hurt you like that, if I wasn’t sure with myself.”

“And you suddenly are now?” Newt asked him, he looked at Thomas directly in the eye and he didn’t see any anger or loss.

“I’ve thought about it,” Thomas told him.  He glanced away form Newt’s intense stare, “I…enjoy you, as a person.”

Newt blinked at him, “You too…?”

“And…I have thought about having a relationship with you, and it’s terrifying, but you’re not,” Thomas stammered.  “I like you, because I know you and you’re safe.”

“The feeling is mutual,” Newt smiled softly.  He saw the blush rushing up Thomas’ face, “So, you think that you could handle us being committed to each other full time and not just coming to each other for a casual shag?”

“You’re ready too and you’ve witnessed the worst of relationships,” Thomas pointed out.

“It doesn’t have to be a competition of who suffered the most to be make them traumatized from something, Thomas,” Newt informed him.  “I chose to move on, I know that I’d be happier trying something than just shoving my denial to the side.”

“You’re much braver than me,” Thomas praised and turned his head into Newt’s touch when his hand moved to cup his face.  “You can forgive me so easily?”

“Only this once,” Newt admitted.  “Because I know you and commitment is completely new to you, and your fear is well placed.”

“I’m not afraid,” Thomas frowned.

“You nearly died of shock from asking me to a baseball game and you looked ill when I said that I loved you,” Newt replied, he saw the way Thomas seemed to shrink within himself.  “I was hurt and angry,” he confessed, he guided Thomas to sit on his bed. 

“I’m sorry,” Thomas whispered.

“I know you are, you’ve always been nothing but honest with me,” Newt replied.

Thomas turned his face in towards Newt’s palm and kissed his hand, “So what do we do now?”

Newt lowered his hand until it was back at his side, “We take things slow.”

“We’ve never done a slow thing together in our lives,” Thomas said, a frown playing at his lips. 

“We take things slow as a couple now, if you’re comfortable to do things like that,” Newt elaborated and was surprised to see that Thomas hadn’t twitched or made a face of displeasure. 

“So what, I can hold you hand, kiss you in front of people, and share my bed?” Thomas asked him.

“Whenever you feel like doing that, you don’t have to constantly give affection, Thomas,” Newt told him.  “That bullshit called love they put in movies is extremely saturated in falseness.  Relationships start off awkward and they’re weird, but people make them work when they have their partner all figured out.”

“I have you all figured out though,” Thomas tilted his head in confusion.  “I know you better than anyone, even my family.”

Newt privately enjoyed the pure genuine tone Thomas spoke in, “You know me physically.”

“No,” Thomas shook his head, “I know that you’ve always preferred the sun to rain, even though you say that you miss the gray days back in your hometown, you’re more excited for Tuesday because those are half-priced movies days and they usually have some silent film you’d see, you prefer nectarines to peaches, which I have no idea why, they’re basically the same—”

“No they’re not,” Newt cut him off.  “The peach fuzz makes me think I’m biting into a critter!”

“But yet, you eat kiwi?” Thomas stated in disbelief.

“You cut the skin off for me,” Newt blushed.

Thomas blinked, “Oh, I forgot about that.  You still eat the bird fruit regardless!”

“There’s no fuzz on it!” Newt argued.

“I can’t believe I’m arguing about fruit with you,” Thomas grumbled.

“Because you love me,” Newt playfully said and he froze at his mistake, but Thomas didn’t freeze up, he smiled adoringly at Newt.

“I think I do,” Thomas agreed, the smile didn’t fade from his face.

~~~

“I thought we were going to take things slow?” Thomas groaned, he gripped the sheets under him as Newt shifted in him.

Newt lifted his head from where he had been marking up Thomas’ neck, “Have we ever taken anything slow together?”

Thomas let out a breathy laugh that turned into a soft moan when Newt changed the angle and canted his hips harshly.  He pulled Newt down to kiss him slowly, nibbling at his bottom lip, “I won’t argue this time.”

“Have you ever though?” Newt teased, ran a hand slowly up Thomas’ chest, feeling Thomas shiver under his touch.  He kissed him sweetly, “I’ve missed being able to touch you.”

Thomas blearily looked up at him, “I’ve missed you too.”

Newt smiled down at him and kissed him once more, slowly as he pleased, not afraid of making it too passionate, as Thomas met him equally.  He enjoyed the slow caress of Thomas’ warm hands running up his sides before settling back down at his hips, the way Thomas gazed at him with soft affection, a sated, dopy smile on his reddened lips; it was everything Newt could imagine.

There was a quick knock before the bedroom door was opening and Thomas jerked the blankets up higher over them both.

“Oh, my God!” Teresa shrilled covering her eyes.

“I thought we locked that damned door?” Newt hissed at Thomas.

“It was!” Thomas exclaimed.  He saw Teresa back out quickly and slammed the door shut.  He looked up at Newt and sighed through his nose, “Moment ruined?”

“Your family has walked in on us before,” Newt reminded him, he rocked his hips forward and he grinned cheekily when Thomas arched up and groaned lowly.  He nipped and sucked down the length of Thomas’ neck and bit down sharply at junction of neck and shoulder when Thomas tangled his fingers into his hair and tugged sharply.

“Newt, please, keep going,” Thomas pleaded softly, eyes watering as the slow thrusts Newt teased him with.  He rolled his hips up and tried to drag Newt down into another kiss, but all he got was another sharp nip to the neck and it made his toes curl.

“You’re such a brat when you’re getting shagged,” Newt sighed and leaned down to give Thomas what he wanted.  He kissed the soft skin of Thomas’ jaw, he could feel a little stubble and he wanted Thomas to get beardy again for his own purposes.

Thomas gasped when Newt thrust into him hard and writhed when Newt gripped him and stroked him slowly through his orgasm, “ _Fuck!”_

Newt just smiled before leaning down to bite Thomas’ bottom lip and tugged lightly before soothing the burn with a kiss.  He pulled out after he finished and lied next to Thomas, rubbing his thumb slowly over Thomas’ hipbone, “Shower?” Newt questioned.

“Yes, and I want you to join me,” Thomas mused, he rolled to his side to kiss Newt’s face.  He slowly slid out of bed and felt Newt brush by him, it made a warm feeling swoop through his stomach.

They only pulled on their sweat pants before stepping out into the hall and Minho was leaving the guest bedroom, he gave them both a gob-smacked expression.

“Shut up, Minho,” Thomas scowled, cheeks turning red.

Minho just had a shit eating grin on his face, “I knew it!”

Newt cleared his throat, “Ahem, Minho, this is my boyfriend, Thomas, Thomas, this is our best friend Minho.”

“Nice to finally meet you with the proper title,” Minho’s smile was so full it looked painful.

“Yea, it feels good too,” Thomas smiled, he was staring at Newt with a mushy expression that had Minho gagging at him.

“As much as I’m happy that you two finally grew a pair and got together, but for how long do I have to see you two go through the honeymoon phase?” Minho asked them seriously.  “Because I’ll be drinking with Brenda, Clint, and Jeff until it’s over.”

“I’m joining that party to forget what I saw,” Teresa’s face peeked from where her bedroom door was open a sliver, she looked defeated.  “Maybe you should also start putting a sock on the door.”

“Or don’t walk in until the person says you can come in!” Thomas exclaimed.

Teresa stuck out her tongue at him before shutting her bedroom door.

“Can we join you just to drink?” Newt asked him.

Minho shook his head, “Only single souls allowed.”

“Better keep Gally and Ben out then, or I’ll think you’re playing favorites,” Thomas warned him. 

“They’ll still be worse than us,” Newt stated, remembering all the horrifying things he heard coming from Gally’s room that was at the very end of the hall.  “Alby has banned them from playing Ultimate with the rest of us because they _guard_ too much.”

“Maybe I’ll invite you guys to our drinking thing after all,” Minho offered to them. 

“Thanks, Min, but I _really_ want to go shower,” Thomas was pulling Newt towards the bathroom. 

“Ugh,” Minho rolled his eyes and left them, scurrying outside to continue playing water balloon wars with Chuck.

Thomas pushed Newt into the bathroom and closed the door behind them, “I know it’s too late to wine, dine, and bed you, as we’ve clearly gone in reverse order, but I’d like to take you somewhere much nicer than the deli shop tomorrow.”

“The sandwich stop means a lot because it was technically the first place we’ve ever gone together,” Newt said as he slipped his fingers into the waistband of Thomas’ sweatpants.

“I always knew you were sentimental,” Thomas teased him, he kissed Newt regardless.

Newt huffed at him, “So are you.”

Thomas looked at him carefully, a soft smile on his face, “I guess we really do have something, hmm?”

“Took us long enough,” Newt shrugged at him.

“No, it took _me_ long enough to realize that I was a dumbass,” Thomas frowned.  His eyes slid shut when Newt cupped his jaw and slowly kissed him, he leaned into his touch, hands resting on Newt’s hips.

“You were afraid, Tommy,” Newt murmured, looking into Thomas’ eyes.  “I’m sorry for being such a prick to you.”

“I didn’t want to talk about how I felt, you had ever right to be angry with me,” Thomas murmured

Newt shook his head at him, “We were both stupid,” he stated.  “We were both in the wrong, but we know that.”

Thomas nodded, throat too tight to say anything.  He hugged Newt close, he liked how warm Newt’s skin was against his, he nuzzled his face against Newt’s neck and kissed the skin there softly, “I’m still sorry,” he said, voice slightly raspy.

“I know, but you don’t have to be,” Newt reminded him.  He kissed Thomas’ cheek, “C’mon, let’s get cleaned up and destroy Minho.”

The competitive fire lit up in Thomas’ eyes as a sly grin slid onto his face, “Pincer attack.”

“Might work if your sister hasn’t joined forces with him and Chuck,” Newt said as he tested the shower water.

“Good thing we’re fast runners and we know the best hiding spots that Teresa doesn’t even know,” Thomas winked at him.

Newt nodded at that, “Fair enough.”

“We’ll be even better because we’re now officially combined forces,” Thomas reminded Newt happily.

“Indeed,” Newt smiled and pulled Thomas into the shower.  “I’m certainly ready to win everything at life with you, my darling.”

Thomas felt a warm bubbly sensation lift from within him; he could already tell himself that this was the best choice he’s ever made, especially when Newt looked at him like that.

The warm feeling never left even after they had finished showering and hurried into loose clothes they could easily run in, they raced downstairs to get the element of surprise on their friends, giggling like school kids when Thomas’ mother chided at them to slow down, they ran hand and hand out the sliding door.

“Just friends, huh?” Chuck joked at them, holding an arm back to throw a water balloon at them, while stood next to him, holding a squirt gun that was pointed at the couple.

“Nah,” Thomas and Newt said in unison and charged at Chuck and Minho with the water guns and hose that had been prepared for them and their water war games.

“We’re gonna lose,” Minho stated sadly, but he would admit that it was going to be the sweetest loss if it meant that his two closest friends could be happy.

Judging by Thomas and Newt’s matching smiles, it was their second-best victory, first being that they were better friends, and an even better couple, the second victory seeing Minho and Chuck soaked to the bone.

And they’d celebrate by feasting on cherry pie, freshly baked by Thomas’ mom and enjoy a long session of Netflix and Chill.

“Think you’ll get tired of me?’ Thomas asked Newt when he had finished marking up Newt’s chest.

“Tommy, I’ve been with you since we were 15, I don’t think that I’ll get tired of you any time soon,” Newt chided him, flicking him on the nose and laughed at the scrunched expression Thomas gave him.  He looped his arms around Thomas’ neck to pull him down into a warm kiss, “I love you,” he whispered, cheeks turning pink.

Thomas made a happy sound before kissing Newt just as gently before pulling back to smile down at him, “I love you too.”

They both knew they were far from the perfect couple, but they could at least agree that they were better together than as just friends.


End file.
